I have long been a fan of this album. The original edition of Southern Lights ranks up there for me as one of the best kiwi releases in the past 10 years. Donnelly’s voice is beautiful, his songwriting is completely refreshing, and the album pulls it all together nicely. Yet to see the full band [...]

Common’s ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ was a real surprise for me. I enjoyed that album way more than I thought I would. The same can be said for this one. ‘Electric Circus’ was not favourably reviewed, nor was it a chart success. But, as anyone who listens to alternative music knows, this really means nothing. [...]

Just paid for Arrested Development Season 3 and checked out the DVD product page on Amazon.com – and there is a little blurb from Jason Bateman about the show. In a way, watching the interview is like picking the scab off a sore. I’m still really gutted that the show is dead, and it’s such [...]

It says a lot about a man who has an album released after his death – which is full of unreleased material – and still manages to keep his integrity in tack. But then Johnny Cash has been making music and turning people on since the dawn of popular music, so if anyone was going [...]

It would be so easy to hate the Kooks. Firstly, they are backed by a HUGE press machine…they are ‘the next big thing’ according to the press, which somehow smells fishy (since when did the general press ever get the jump on me?), and they look, well how can I say it, a little, manufactured [...]

The Love Below/Speakerboxxx for me was a disappointment. It didn’t have the edge that Stankonia did, and took itself was too seriously when compared to ‘ATLiens’ or ‘Southerplayalisticadillacmuzik’. Those to albums were hip-hop classics, where the overweight double disc were a record of Andre 3000 and Big Boi’s musical split. Idlewild is probably a little [...]

I have always liked the Rolling Stones, but not to the point of some people. For example, I only own Forty Licks, and didn’t even think about going to see them when they toured here (in 95 or 06). I guess I thought that the best years were behind them, and never really understood why [...]

With the current wave of folk artists gaining popularity (Seu Jorge, Jose Gonzalez, Sufjan Stevens), it’s always nice to look back at the artists that ‘blazed the trail’ (if there is such a thing as a folk trail-blazer). My ears really begun to open to folk based music after hearing Nick Drake’s ‘River Man’ from [...]