eau d'bedroom dancing

okay, so the indie music nights in christchurch continue. well, sort of christchurch - this time it's lytellton, at the wunderbar. and oh how i love the wunderbar. i'm always looking for excuses to get out there. so if yr looking for something to do this saturday, the drive to the wunderbar will be well worth it. because, you see, wammo and i are playing indie tunes from about 9pm onwards. there's no cover charge, you'll just have to make the drive out there. which is quite scenic really - oh boy, that tunnel never fails to thrill me.

no but really, you should come. wammo will play his usual blend of super hot indie exotic and disco pogo, while i'll be playing stuff along the lines of these bands:

clor, clap your hands say yeah!, tom vek, enon, the faint, belle & sebastian, the smiths, the robot ate me, luke vibert, devendra banhart, junior boys, liquid liquid, boom bip, television, adult, the futureheads, the kills, felix da housecat. and a whole heap more.

so yeah, it will be pretty eclectic, but heaps of fun. the idea is that anything goes, as long as it's good.

the gig doesn't really have a name as such, but it's this saturday - the 3rd of september. 9pm start, no cover charge. and if all goes well, they may become a regular thing. ooh!

the lurgee that did bring me to mine knees

hey all, missed the show with the lurgee last night but looks like a great playlist. just to let you all know machinations behind the scenes type things are in process to try and bring you the new tim rogers double album direct to your fave show... in the meantime the tim rogers minisite is up via www.youami.net and you can listen to selected tracks and read a very interesting bio that covers off some of mr rogers' more interesting recent history.

we are the music makers
and we are the dreamers of dreams

timothy dodgers xiii

when i came home from the party [playlist 30/8/05]

1. tralala - all fired up [tralala]
2. saturday looks good to me - alcohol [all yr summer songs]
3. magneta lane - the constant lover [constant lover ep]
4. grandaddy - florida [excerpts from the diary of todd zilla]
5. field music - you can decide [field music]
6. the ponys - i'm with you [celebration castle]
7. the clientele - since k got over me [strange geometry]
8. clap your hands say yeah! - over and over again (lost and found) [clap your hands say yeah!]
9. the shout out louds - please please please [howl howl gaff gaff]
10. rogue wave - publish my love [descended like vultures]
11. broken social scene - windsurfing nation [broken social scene]
12. dr. dog - oh no [easy beat]
13. the boy least likely to - paper cuts [the best party ever]
14. american analog set - born on the cusp [set free]
15. my morning jacket - wordless chorus [z]
16. deerhoof - wind cheek love song [the runners four]
17. the minus story - knocking on your head [no rest for ghosts]
18. the fiery furnaces - a candymaker's knife [rehearsing my choir]
19. animal collective - did you see the words [feels]
20. the bell orchestre - les lumieres (parts i & ii) [tour ep]
21. sigur ros - glosoli [takk]
22. devendra banhart - now that i know [cripple crow]
23. the decemberists - the engine driver [picaresque]
24. iron & wine - in my lady's house [woman king ep]
25. dungen - gjort bort sig [tet la dugnt]
26. single frame - i've been to a party at this house [wetheads come running]
27. clor - stuck in a tight spot [clor]
28. ex models - headlines [chrome panther]

everything beautiful is far away

i've found quite a few free downloads of note in the last few days, mostly from the blogs/websites of the artists themselves.

the most notable is grandaddy, whose fourthcoming ep can be previewed in part at their myspace page. here's a download i found at stereogum:

pull the curtains

i was looking at the clap your hands say yeah! website and came across three mp3s from their debut, self-titled and self-released album:

in this home on ice

upon this tidal wave of young blood

over and over again (lost & found)

over at music (for robots) is a download from the most serene republic's latest album, underwater cinematographer, which has been on high rotate on guitar media.

content always was my favourite colour

i've just got the new fiery furnaces album, and man is it weird. it's called rehearsing my choir and it's a collaboration with their grandmother (or something). it's quite insane, there's a lot of narration over top of more experimental (than their previous stuff) instrumentation. it's very difficult, even after blueberry boat, but i think i might just like it. a lot:

seven silver curses

but i think the most interesting thing i've come across recently is ninja high school. they'r on the go! team's record label, memphis industry, and play a similar style of sampled-infused dance/hip-hop. these two songs are from the fourthcoming young adults against suicide:

by purpose not by plan (sex nerds mix)

shake it off

mixtape connection vol. 2 - 26/8/05 [photos]

another strong turnout for the second mixtape connection gig meant super fun for all. thanks to everyone who came along and danced and had a nice time. thanks darlene and amanda for being the lovely door staff, and to everyone who helped out with promotion and everything.

i'm feeling pretty average on this saturday evening, though. listening to brian eno - taking tiger mountain (by strategy) and it seems to suit things perfectly.

so the gigs are monthly now, on the last friday of every month. if anyone has any feedback or comments, just post them down the bottom of the photos. i've just selected a few of the better snaps, i think mr hitchcock was taking some on his camera too, so there may be some more uploaded later.

the best thing about instrumental musick is that it says so much

just a note to check out

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

as blog that looks like it might be very intermittent but entertaining - if you're a radiohead geek. yes the head are back in the studio testing the waters it seems and blogging the experience. now without a label it will be interesting for the industry and fans alik to see what they do next and how they release the fruits of their labour - who needs a label these days??

also tim rogers and the temperance union are releasing a double album next month - check www.youami.net for more info.

i may come back later and explain why the new sigur ros album is slowly emerging crystalline beauty like an icecube slowly melting or why i'm starting to love IDM all over again...

have a nice day. back to work and pelican (and then bitche's brew).

vote for dodgers 2005
- I promise to icrease sentences for house djs and make drum n bass punishable by death -

the coming of spring

just a short note to remind you that the mixtape connection vol. 2 is on this friday (the 26th) at capitol bar. it's free and the first 50 rdunited members get a free mix cd.

styles playing: post-punk, 80s pop, electro, indie-rock, dance-punk, new wave and more.

this will include artists such as: out hud, the rapture, lcd soundsystem (plus other dfa tracks), !!!, mu, the human league, the soft pink truth, death from above 1979, the cure, blondie, talking heads, joy division, devo, new order, felix da housecat, gang of four, the go! team, vitalic, arthur russell, ellen alien, junior boys, maximo park, tom vek, etc.

djs playing: ed muzik (guest from the brockville country club), missy g (host of rdu's girl school, mondays 9-11pm), mr hitchcock (host of rdu's mixtape sessions, thursdays 7-9pm) and dj teen heat (me! from guitar media. check it...).

come down and have a drink, and be sure to stop by at mainstreet for indie exotica and disco pogo with the one and only wammo. that's free too. see you there...

it hurts to see you dance so well [playlist 23/8/05]

1. broken social scene - our faces split the coast in half [broken social scene]
2. the notwist - pilot [neon golden]
3. tom vek - don't jump [i ain't saying my goodbyes single]
4. oneida - did i die [the wedding]
5. animal collective - did you see the words [feels]
6. architecture in helsinki - wishbone [in case we die]
7. rogue wave - 10:1 [10:1 ep]
8. the phoenix foundation - lambs [horsepower]
9. clap your hands say yeah! - tidal wave of young blood [clap your hands say yeah!]
10. the jon spencer blues explosion - 2 kindsa love [now i got worry]
11. the black keys - grown so ugly [rubber factory]
12. clor - stuck in a tight spot [clor]
13. the afghan whigs - miles iz dead [congregation]
14. the feelies - original love [crazy rhythms]
15. the shout out louds - the comeback [howl howl gaff gaff]
16. the skygreen leopards - careless gardeners of eden [life and love in sparrows meadow]
17. broken social scene - ibi dreams of pavement (a better half) [broken social scene]
18. pavement - loretta's scars [slanted & enchanted]
19. enon - natural disasters [high society]
20. the sea urchins - cling film [stardust]
21. the clientele - my own face inside the trees [strange geometry]
22. devendra banhart - hey mama wolf [cripple crow]
23. the mountain goats - palmcorder yanja [we shall all be healed]
24. smog - drinking at the dam [a river ain't too much to love]
25. american analog set - the green green grass [set free]
26. pelican - sirius [the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw]
27. a silver mt zion - more action! less tears! [pretty little lightning paw ep]

tom vek - we have sound [album review]

[Go Beat]
****

Tom Vek leans towards the most danceable end of the New Wave revivalist spectrum. On We Have Sound, the basslines go low and electronics go to the foreground – elements which in the end play a large part in creating an inventive electro-rock sound. Oh, and there’s cowbells and slap bass aplenty, as well as a few nice handclaps – all the elements that make any new-New Wave revivalist succeed in a genre that seems open to anyone these days. Comparisons are best directed towards The Rapture or Maximo Park, but there are a huge range of different elements at work in We Have Sound. Tracks like “I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes” dwell in basically dance music terrain. For all the slick, subterranean dance beats there is still a comfortable indie slackness in instrumentation. It’s nice to hear some diversity on an album of this genre – it’s definitely not one dimensional, even if influences are never too far in the distance.

autozamm - as for now [album review]

[Flying Pearl Records]
*

Okay, so a couple of years back, there were a couple of kiwi bands that looked back to the ‘60s in a big rock and roll way. It was pretty big in England (and Japan!) and even here in New Zealand, too. Well, for a while at least. Inevitably, this fad didn’t last very long, and by the time these bands’ second albums came out, most of us were left wondering what the fuss was all about. I still can’t quite remember, but I could see how it worked at the time.

It’s now about three years after those crazy British people at NME magazine made such a commotion about the likely lads of The Datsuns and The D4. It’s not inappropriate that such a large chunk of this review is dedicated to two bands that are not Autozamm, because Autozamm are definitely indebted to the two. The only difference is that the aforementioned were actually good at what they did—especially in comparison with the stale, clichéd and secondhand sounding pseudo-retro rock that is present on this disc.

Tracks like ‘Sweet Love’ are the sound that I’m talking about here. To the untrained ear, one might assume that this record was indeed The Datsuns, or in other places, The D4. Or anyone, for that matter. Autozamm just end up sounding like some second rate knockoff. In fact, I’d go so far as to say this album is actually completely shit. Washed out, Foo Fighters-esque monotony that all sounds like it has been mixed into the middle is the best type of sound one could find amidst a myriad of attempts at various styles.

That Autozamm will get any recognition for an album like this would probably only come from the fact that they’re from New Zealand. This may sound a little harsh, but think about it. Listen to this album and if you can even remember who the artist was by the end of it, then you’ve accomplished something. There’s nothing New Zealand sounding about it, of course (I mean, is there even such a thing?) but such a imitative and bland rock sound doesn’t have a whole lot going for it. As For Now is ultimately too unsure of itself and too derivative (of everything) to even warrant a passing listen.

Vintage Cuts 21/08 - There Went The Warm Jets

So today I dropped my Brian Eno special on Vintage Cuts - hope some of you out there heard and enjoyed. IT's pretty humbling stuff really - the man is often called a genius and when you look not only at his own discography but also the calibre of artists and recordings he has appeared on a produced, what can you say? the show went down like this...

1. David Bowie, Heroes. (Heroes)
2. Roxy Music, Virginia Plain. (Roxy Music)
3. Brian Eno, Needle in the Camel's Eye. (Here Come The Warm Jets)
4. Roxy Music, In Every Dream Home A Heartache. (For Your Pleasure)
5. Brian Eno, Here Come The Warm Jets. (Here Come The Warm Jets)
6. Brian Eno, Sparrowfall 1,2,3. (Music For Films)
7. Brian Eno, Burning AIrlines GIve You So Much More. (Taking Tiger Mountain (By
Strategy) )
8. Brian Eno, St. Elmo's Fire. (Another Green World)
9. Brian Eno, 1/1 (Ambient 1: Music For Airports)
10. David Bowie, Warszawa. (Low)
11. Brian Eno, Another Green World. (Another Green World)
12. Iggy & The Stooges, Search and Destroy. (Raw Power - Bowie Production, tenuous
link perhaps but I love this album)
13. Lou Reed, Satellite of Love. (Transformer - Bowie Production, and sings on the
chorus/ outro.)
14. Brian Eno, The Dance 3. (Ambient 3:Day Of Radience)
15. David Bowie, Secret Lif Of Arabia. (Heroes)
16. David Bowie, DJ. (Lodger)
17. Talking Heads, Take Me To The River. (More Songs About Buildings And Food)
18. Brian Eno and David Byrne, America is Waiting. (My Life In The Bush of Ghosts)
19. Talking Heads, Once In A LIfetime. (Remain In Light)
20. Devo, (I Can't Get No)Satisfaction. (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo)
21. Brian Eno w/ Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno, Silver Morning. (Apollo: Atmospheres
and Soundtracks)
22. U2, Acrobat. (Achtung Baby)

"Few bands as far into their career as U2 have recorded an album as adventurous
or fulfilled their ambitions quite as successfully as they do on Achtung Baby,
and the result is arguably their best album" - Allmusic.com

23. Passengers (U2/ Eno), Your Blue Room. (Passengers, Volume 1)
24. Brian Eno, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy. (Taking Tiger Mountain (By
Strategy))

Phew!

So lots of ambient drones and depths to lose yourself in for that one transcendent moment, and then flung back into the physical by tense rhythms and searing guitars.

Eno is truly one of the more interesting and challenging figures in modern music, and has done to "pop" music what Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Coltrane, and Charlie Parker did for jazz. You really should check him out....


and as an aside, are Talkign Heads one of the most underrated bands around? They simply are sensational and if you haven't already I recommend you see Stop Making Sense, which is one of the greatest live musical documents of our time, filmed by Jonathon Demme (Silence of the Lambs). Check it out at www.aliceinvideoland.co.nz.

Check in on Tuesday for the latest and greatest plus all the albums I'm digging at the moment, especially


The new Devendra Bandhart, Cripple Crow.
The Wilderness, S/T
Oneida, The Wedding
The Skygreen Leopards latest
Sigur Ros new one Takk
Old Afghan Whigs - Conregation
and more more more!

love y'all,

Timmy Dodgers.

[playlist 16/8/05]

1. q and not u - black plastic bag [different damage]
2. pavement - grounded [wowee zowee]
3. the clientele - my own face inside the trees [strange geometry]
4. jon spencer blues explosion - dissect [orange]
5. comets on fire - pussy fottin' the duke [blue cathedral]
6. the rakes - retreat [the rakes]
7. black mountain - don't run our hearts around [black mountain[
8. sunset rubdown - snake's got a leg ii [snake's got a leg] (wolf parade side project)
9. bonnie "prince" billy & matt sweeney - what are you [superwolf]
10. the bell orchestre - les lumieres (parts i & ii) [tour ep] (arcade fire side project)
11. calexico - the black light [the black light]
12. american analog set - cool kids keep [set free]
13. david bowie - boys keep swinging [lodger]
14. the jesus and mary chain - april skies [darklands]
15. okervil river - for real [black sheep boy]
16. animal collective - the purple bottle [feels]
17. the beach boys - wasn't made for these times [pet sounds]
18. sigur ros - glosoli [takk]
19. wilderness - say can you see [wilderness]
20. mogwai - tracy [young team]
21. devendra banhart - long haired child [cripple crow]
22. the shout out louds - my friend and the ink on his fingers [howl howl gaff gaff]
21. breather resist - long nights short fuses [charmer]

home again garden grove

hmm. damn. it's really not fair living in christchurch. this stance might be a little worn now, but my heart always sinks when i read about gigs happening in auckland (or wellington) that i know i would attend.

interpol a couple of weeks back is the obvious gig i'm talking about (while i couldn't quite justify the flight up, the people who did sure about boasted it a lot :P), but more breaking news - the mountain goats are playing one show only in auckland as a 95bfm "private function" (it's not quite as slick as it sounds i don't think - you can get in free with yr b card. that kind of makes things worse for people in christchurch though, huh). they play at some place called shadows on the 9th of september with support from the kingsland vinyl appreciation society & the nudie suits. it seems they're popping over the tasman after playing five or so dates in australia.

i might see if i can hook up some sort of interview with john darnielle, the man behind the mountain goats project.

of course i've given up any hope that they might come to christchurch. we need someone to run another "christchurch deshitification project" that wammo and spanky did in their week-long trip to auckland a few months back. while it was entertaining, i guess all that we learnt from that is that christchurch is a bit shit, really. but anyway...

new stuff on this weeks show:

songs from forthcoming albums from the animal collective - feels, american analog set - set free, the clientele - strange geometry, deerhoof - the runners four, magnolia electric company - hard to love a man, the bell orchestre - ep (arcade fire side project), sigur ros - takk.

mixtape connection vol. 2

so the mixtape connection nights are continuing on the last friday of every month. if you went to the last one, you'll know it went really well, and was like super fun for everyone. this one will be even better because ed muzik will also play a set of sweet 80s action - in a reasonably similar vein to what i'll be playing, actually:

out hud, the rapture, lcd soundsystem (plus other dfa tracks), !!!, mu, the human league, the soft pink truth, death from above 1979, the cure, blondie, talking heads, joy division, devo, new order, felix da housecat, gang of four, the go! team, vitalic, arthur russell, ellen alien, junior boys, maximo park, tom vek, etc.

other genres over the night will include: indie pop & rock, electro, riot grrrrl, 80s pop, post-punk, dance-punk, pop. the overall idea though, is that anything is allowed, as long as it's good. it's on friday night, august the 26th, and it's free! you should probably come...

quasimoto - the further adventures of lord quas [album review]

[Stonesthrow]
****

Quasimoto is yet another nom-de-plume of Madlib, an underground hiphop producer and MC most recently heralded for his collaboration with MF Doom on last year’s Madvillainy. The Further Adventures of Lord Quas sounds like a side project in the sense that to some extent, one expects side material to be somewhat sloppier than main projects. It turns out that the eclectics and abundances of this record are its strongest features. And along with successful experimentalism, tight MCing over lo-fi beats (the latter is similar to King Geedorah’s Take Me To Your Leader), this is one terrific album – as long as you’ve got the fast forward button (and perhaps a rather large spliff) handy.

While many reviews of The Further Adventures… have tended to focus on the fact that at 27 tracks in total, a lot of the album is lost amidst filler, I would tend to disagree. The lengthiness and eclecticism found through such a huge assortment of tracks give the album a depth that isn’t often found in hiphop, particularly to a novice such as myself. I find you have to search pretty hard to find good hiphop, (maybe I’m just uninitiated, or perhaps just picky) but albums like this make the search worthwhile.

The general atmosphere that spans the 27 tracks is largely reminiscent of the dark underbelly of some metropolis from some dark comic book (think Batman - Gotham City). It’s very dark, but at the same time can be pretty mellow and unthreatening to the ears.

The song structures are very loose, as is the record in its entirety. Again, this works out well. Very abstract, free-form and frequently interesting. There’s a lot of humor at work, and most of it is very quirky – maybe a little too much for some people’s tastes. The hardest part of this record is definitely the high-pitched, chipmunk like voice, which unfortunately, is also kind of reminiscent of Eminem. Ugh. But I found looking at it with the idea that this voice makes any commercial successful basically impossible (because of how absurd and unconventional it sounds) in mind seems to help to make it sound pretty much normal after a couple of listens. This is “underground” hiphop in the truest sense. And while it isn’t the best starting point for Madlib’s work, its 27 tracks are definitely worth digging through.

hard times are hard [playlist 9/8/05]

1. death from aboe 1979 - pull out [you're a woman, i'm a machine]
2. dillinger escape plan - panasonic youth [miss machine]
3. ex models - fuck to the music [zoo psychology]
4. pelican - aurora borealis [the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw]
5. kinksi - the wives of artie shaw [alpine static]
6. mary timony - hard times are hard [ex hex]
7. the double - idiocy [loose in the air]
8. the fruit bats - lives of crime [spelled in bones]
9. the lucksmiths - sunlight in a jar [warmer corners]
10. the shins - young pilgrims [chutes too narrow]
11. the go! team - panther dash [thunder, lightning, strike]
12. marbles - hello sun [expo]
13. sigur ros - me blonasir [takk] (omg hot hot fourthcoming !@#~$)
14. wilderness - it's all the same [wilderness]
15. rocketship - i love you like the way that i used to [a certain smile, a certain sadness
16. mission of burma - nicotine bomb [onoffon]
17. a frames - negative [black forest]
18. sigur ros - glosoli [takk] (oooer fourthcoming)
19. devendra banhart - heard somebody say [cripple crow]
20. neutral milk hotel - two-headed boy [in the aeroplane over the sea]
21. eliott smith - pitselah [xo]
22. iron & wine w/ calexico - prison on route 41 [fourthcoming split ep]
23. clap your hands say yeah! - the skin of my yellow country teeth [clap your hands say yeah]
24. the most serene replublic - relative's eyes [underwater cinematographer]
25. dirty three - red - horse stories

the coral - the invisible invasion [album review]

[Sony International]
**

It’s a drag having to review albums like this. I could be listening to the new Devendra Banhart album (unreleased, but hot off the internet), but instead I’m stuck with The Coral’s new effort. Why would I want to listening to something so decidedly average when there’s so much other interesting stuff out there? The Coral fail to answer this perhaps basic question on their latest release, The Invisible Invasion, on which they recede further into the drab, pseudo-psychedelic Brit-rock for which they are known.

And it’s pretty much totally uninteresting. Thirty-five minutes of 60s inspired Britpop might have used to sound like a pretty okay idea, but now it’s pretty tired. The Coral themselves also seem tired and quite jaded on this release. Earlier albums expressed some vigour and enthusiasm, but here the vocalist sounds strangely sober, particulary in comparison to the energy of earlier EPs like Magic & Medicine. It’s not what you’d call retrospective – it’s just stuck in the past. Forget The Beatles already! Godammnit. I don’t know why the British obsession with them still lingers so much. Okay, so they were a good band and undeniably revolutionary, but this blind patriotism is getting pretty old. So is the same old NME press banter associated with supposedly “best new bands” that seems to have bolstered The Coral into being a lot more than they really are.

The Invisible Invasion probably isn’t that awful. There are actually quite few good songs on this album. It’s just the thought of every other amazing thing I could be listening to right now that tarnishes this release because of its overarching averageness. If you like music without having to think a whole lot (or at all) then you might like this. Otherwise, steer clear. Even if you like 60s inspired pop – you’d be better of looking elsewhere (try anything from the Elephant 6 label for any Beatles/Beach Boys recalling needs). That is precisely the problem with The Coral. While their earlier stuff may have been okay, listening to them now seems pretty pointless.

vintage cuts 7/8/05 [playlist]

1. devo - gut feeling [life aquatic with steve zissou soundtrack]
2. the smiths - how soon is now [meat is murder]
3. the jesus and mary chain - darklands [darklands]
4. the pixies - river euphrates [surfer rosa]
5. dinosaur jr. - freak scene [bug]
6. pavement - loretta's scars [slanted and enchanted]
7. rem - laughing [murmur]
8. brian eno - burning airlines give me you so much more [taking tiger mountain (by strategy)]
9. sonic youth - teenage riot [daydream nation]
10. x - the once over twice [wild gift]
11. the jam - in the city [snap!]
12. gang of four - at home he's a tourist [entertainment!]
13. sleater-kinney - dig me out [dig me out]
14. olivia tremor control - marking time [dusk at cubist castle]
15. the field mice - emma's house [where'd you learn to kiss that way]
16. roxy music - more than this [avalon]
17. the human league - darkness [dare!]
18. devo - mongoloid [q: are we not men? a: we are devo!]
19. joy division - disorder [unknown pleasures]
20. the fall - slang king [the wonderful and frightening world of the fall]
21. lou reed - vicious [transformer]
22. television - prove it [marquee moon]
23. patti smith - kimberly [horses]
24. the velvet underground - european son [the velvet underground and nico]
25. can - i'm so green [ege bamyasi]
26. sebadoh - magnet's coil [bakesale]

back to the gold soundz

there's been a lot of guest spots on vintage cuts (sunday, 1pm-3pm on rdu) lately and it's my turn this sunday (the 7th). i'll be playing lots of indie pop and rock from the 90s as well as other old favs.

tims gonna play some of his hits from the past later in august.

the new record by marbles, expo, is really cool. oh! and wow - the new flaming lips dvd look interesting.

the blood brothers [interview]

Richard MacFarlane talked with Cody Votolato, guitarist from US indie/spaz-rock/hardcore band The Blood Brothers. Forming in 1997, the five-piece have seen great success with their blend of angry but danceable indie-punk. Promoting Crimes, (their fourth album) they played Auckland two weeks back along with The Mint Chicks and This Night Creeps.

Richard MacFarlane: Its kind of strange that you guys actually came to New Zealand in a way.- how come you decided to tour here?

Cody Votolato: We just wanted to really. We didn’t really expect our show to be good or anything [laughs]. We just really wanted to come here, and we figured that seeing we were going to Australia then we might as well come here, because we probably won’t get the chance to again.

RM: Have you heard much about NZ? In terms of the music or the country itself?

CV: Ah, not really. I heard a few seconds of one of the bands we’re playing with. They sounded good.

RM: Ah, the Mint Chicks?

CV: Yeah, that’s the one. Were looking forward to seeing them play. But I don’t know much about New Zealand as far as music goes…or anything really.

RM: What might fans expect from the live show?

CV: Um, hopefully just to have fun, and to feel safe enough to dance. At times it gets pretty crazy, I think. It’s a fun time

RM: Yeah with your music itself, critics pretty much have a field day describing it. How would you describe it?

CV: [laughs] uh, I don’t know. It’s kind of a really tough question, to pinpoint what you sound like. But I’d like to think it’s a bunch of chaos with some melody, you know. I couldn’t pinpoint a genre…I hate doing that. I think with certain kinds of bands it’s pretty easy but even then its pretty ridiculous these days.

RM: Your sound, though, is pretty inaccessible or difficult, in many respects. Is that deliberate at all?

CV: No, its kind of what we sound like. We’ve just always written music that is a little bit inaccessible. I do think moments on Crimes are more accessible than previous stuff but that’s just what it turned out like really. I still think it’s a pretty weird record and the songs are pretty weird. There’s nothing deliberate like that with out band, it’s just how we write [laughs].

RM: Yeah I think on your earlier albums, you were far weirder and more chaotic than Crimes.

CV: Yeah, a lot more disjointed and weird.

RM: So you were on V2 records for Crimes. Were you previously on more independent labels for earlier albums?

CV: Burn, Piano Island, Burn! wasn’t really on an independent label. It was just like a start up major label, so it wasn’t like, well known.

RM: Did the change in labels have anything to do with the move to a less difficult sound?

CV: Not really, I mean we were pretty much just approached by the labels. I mean, we were still in like our first year of college. We took the band serious but we would tour in the summer whenever we had a chance. And we were approached and we considered it and we decided to try and make it our job because we thought it would be fun and then its just kind of been that way for the past four years now. Nothing has ever been forced in that area, that was never an ambition of ours. We all really wanted to play music – it wasn’t our dream to be in like, a big band, you know. And its still not an ambition of ours to be real famous.

RM: You guys strike me as being pretty, well, cathartic in your music. Is it a big outlet like that? Like, creatively or emotionally or whatever…

CV: Yeah of course, I mean I think whatever anyone creates some sort of art then it’s an emotional outlet in some way or another. That’s just how we express ourselves, and I think mentally through writing and physically through performing getting out that sort of stuff, yeah.

RM: Is being experimental a big thing?

CV: Yeah, when we’re writing we’ll just jam. We’ll just play, trying stuff out, and if something sounds good then we’ll remember it and it’ll turn into something, or if it doesn’t then it just won’t. We’ll just spend the day making noise but its always pretty fun like that.

RM: Yeah now Johnny’s vocals have been pretty extreme and high sounding lately, so I guess he’s been experimenting with his voice a lot?

CV: [laughs] yeah he’s been listening to a lot of Prince lately. The progression of his voice has just gotten higher and higher over the four records.

RM: What sort of bands do you sort of see as your peer group right now?

CV: The kind of bands that I see as fitting into our peer group aren’t really bands that I see as sounding like us. I think about bands that we’ve played with or toured with like The Liars, or The Locust, or The Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Against Me. All these bands that are friends, its almost this weird kind of community of people that play different sorts of music but have the same ambition and the same outlook of being in a band, and creativity wise. I really feel connected with bands like those and bands that inspire me and all these people who are constantly inspired by others. I think it’s really cool to sort of exist in this kind of thing. Like I don’t think anyone would draw to many similarities between those bands. That’s where I see our band as falling into, you know just this group of people that try and push themselves to be creative and make good, soulful music. It’s a cool time for music, I think.

he's like the opposite of everything i hate - playlist 2/8/05

1. asobi seksu - sooner [asobi seksu]
2. oneida - leaves [the wedding]
3. the unicorns - sea ghost [who will cut our hair when we're gone?]
4. smog - i feel the mother of the world [a river ain't too much to love]
5. neko case - deep red bells [blacklisted]
6. whiskeytown - bar lights [pneumonia]
7. silver jews - k-hole [tanglewood numbers]
8. animal collective - prospect hummer [prospect hummer ep]
9. olivia tremor control - hideaway [black foliage animation music]
10. wolf parade - killing armies [wolf parade ep]
11. mixel pixel - at the arcade [contact kid]
12. david bowie - be my wife [low]
13. orange juice - blue boy [the glasgow school]
14. sage francis - jah killed johnny [healthy distrust]
15. the nein - foreign friendster [wrath of circuits]
16. interpol - obstacle 2 [turn on the bright lights]
17. chin up chin up - the architect has a gun [we should have never lived like we were skyscrapers]
18. the folk implosion - pole position [7" single/dare to be suprised]
19. shipping news - sheets and cylinders [flies and fields]
20. pelican - last day of winter [the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw]
21. slint - good morning, captain [spiderland]
22. the constantines - love in fear [tournament of hearts]
23. hopewell - true blue [hopewell and the birds of appetite]
24. apostle of hustle - kings & queens [folkloric feel]
25. radiohead - a wolf at the door [hail to the thief]

the bats - harbour lite: 31/7/05 [photos]

photos from the bats gig in the weekend, taken by shea birmingham (thanks!). click on thumbnails to see larger images.

human pleasure at hourly rates 1/8/05 [playlist]

1. clap your hands say yeah! - let the cool goddess rust away [clap your hands say yeah!]
2. the most serene republic - the protagonist suddenly realises what he must do in the middle of downtown traffic [underwater cinematographer]
3. hal - play the hits [hal]
4. marbles - out of zone [expo]
5. the new pornographers - three or four [twin cinema]
6. the lucksmiths - sunlight in a jar [warmer corners]
7. the oranges band - drug city [the world and everything in it]
8. portastatic - through with people [bright ideas]
9. dressy bessy - call it even [electrified]
10. the jim yoshii pile-up - revulsion [picks us apart]
11. the chap - i am oozing emotion [ham]
12. get him eat him - one word [geography cones]
13. islands - abominable snow [download only]
14. the mae shi - crimes of infancy [heartbeeps ep]
15. the oxford collapse - dusty horses practice [a good ground]
16. deerhoof - panda panda panda [apple o']
17. hank - carving beef on weck [how to prosper in the coming bad years]
18. the double - idiocy [loose in the air]
19. the constantines - soon enough [tournament of hearts]
20. the concretes - forces [layourbattleaxedown]
21. devendra banhart - heard somebody say [cripple crow]
22. cocorosie - k-hole [noah's ark]
23. iron & wine w/ calexico - red dust [fourthcoming combined ep]
24. silver jews - sleeping is the only love [tanglewood numbers]
25. mount eerie - what i actually am [no flashlight]
26. xiu xiu - muppet face [la foret]
27. thee more shallows - 2am [more deep cuts]
28. the mobius band - i just turned 18 [the loving sounds of static]
29. odawas - if it smells like a rain cloud [the aether eater]
30. prefuse 73 - pagina tres [prefuse 73 reads the books]
31. adult - scare up the birds [gimme trouble]
32. applied communications - let's make my bed [uhhh sort of]
33. dangerdoom - el chupa nibre [the mouse and the mask]