Having attend a gig at ‘The Front Room’ again (it was originally the old ‘St James Cab’) was novel in itself. I have a few good memories of concerts there (‘Supergroove’ in the early 90′s) and some only partial memories of concerts there (‘Shihad’ in the mid 90′s); in Wellington, this venue is a bit [...]

Who needs to line up for tickets for concerts these days? All those people standing on your feet, the annoying guy that stands next to you singing all the words to all the songs? I’ll admit, you can’t beat the live experiene, but there are a lot of ways to complement it. Like this little [...]

A lot of people have ‘questioned’ Beck’s creativity in the past few years. The projected trajectory following ‘Odelay’ seemed to fuel an unbelievable expectation. There have been highlights in his catalogue since then (‘Mutations’ being a standout), but the feeling that ‘Odelay’ would be the launching pad that would see Beck take music into some [...]

As far as years for live gigs go, this year has been by far and away the best of my life. Having seen The Arcade Fire, Rage Against The Machine, Spoon, Shihad, Wilco, Bjork, Queens of the Stone Age, Smashing Pumpkins, Liam Finn already this year (with The Black Keys to come on Friday), the [...]

The self-titled Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) album due in August will something to get excited about. It’s only been a year since Cassadaga, but Oberst’s songwriting output is such that he’s readying a solo album for August – something to get excited about. The initial tasters from the album (‘Souled Out!!’ and ‘Danny Callahan’) take [...]

Appreciating Andrew Bird seems to be something that comes with age. Many years ago, I bawlked at ‘The Mysterious Production of Eggs’, yet a few years later, I took ‘Armchair Apocrypha’ as the most enjoyable music to feature I violin that I had ever heard. I know I should have caught him earlier this year [...]

Coldplay’s albums have had varying effects on me. Those first two albums were amazing. ‘Parachutes’ took me by surprise, essentially redefining mellow alternative rock (‘Yellow’, ‘Trouble’ and ‘Shiver” have been done to death now, but I can still remember listening to them for the first time and thinking what the “f…?”) while ‘A Rush of [...]

Most people by now know of my new-found hot love for Spoon. My Spoon love-life just keeps getting better, since those good bastards at Daytrotter have dropped some gems from the Austin, Texas based band. Check out a new cover of Paul Simon’s ‘Peace Like A River’, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s trippy ‘The Ghost [...]