I've been doing a bit of thinking about how I once, a long while back I used to bitch like a Fury about international bands never coming New Zealand, and then even as recently as mid last year I was moaning on about bands never coming to Nelson.
A simple thought came to mind, in doing all this gripeing what am I really saying... New Zealand bands aren't good enough, only international will do, Nelson band are shit and I need saving????
Hell no, but it does say a lot about where we go to find our music, is it easier for us to sit at home listening to the radio and surfing the web to find the sounds? Is it too hard to get up off our bums and go and look at what is happening in our local clubs, pubs and parks?
Bugger this is sounding way harsh, and not at all the tone I wish to set at all.
Years ago there was a ad campaign titled "Don't leave Town till you've seen the Country" for the New Zealand tourism board... it premise was to get Kiwis to travel within New Zealand before doing their OE.
Surly each of us live in a vibrant community. I refuse to believe that something magical about Nelson is causing us to have sooo many good local bands, it has to be happening in other places as well, and as great as nzmusic.com is without the locals posting about their communities how is it possible for the rest of us to know what is going on????
So basically to bottom line this topic, what's happening round your place????
And as to my 2003 is feel pretty damn fine, I will let others add to this topic before I wade in with my big hairy bare hippy feet and rave about Nelson's locals ;)
OT - i'm wondering if A Low Hum will cover this sort of groundroots resurgence ... written by people for the people, slowly spreading to towns after cities ... there's really nothing out there that caters for local-ness anymore. RIU is full of advertising rather than information, and there's so much more international coverage in there - i remember when things were different, and the local city reports were actually thorough and a great guide to what was going on. NZ Musician is pretty good, but disparate ...
but back On Topic - great topic by the way Aka - stuff has been happening for some time down here in Dunedin. there's a palpable sense of hope in music, despite Radio 1's "sorry we can't play your local music cos it wasn't recorded on Pro Tools" stance. there are quite a few really great, really distinctive, musos who really care about music down here. there's something good on every weekend. every other weekend, there's something new to see. and the students aren't back yet!
it's been dry for a long long time, but i've been here long enough to see the contrast between the glory days of late Dunedin sounds and the desert that was the mid 90s, and now. exciting times we live in, us NZmusic lovers.
// if I was coming down to Dunedin who should I see?
well that's the thing. stuff seems to be set up down here so that gigs (well, definitely same-genre ones) don't conflict with each other. i would say it was a matter of venues - go to Arc one night, ReFuel the next ... I like the Crown myself. I like the Strange Girls and the Fraudulents especially, but it depends on what you like yourself. I guess like most towns, the motto is just go out and see what you find. it's just that it's getting easier to find these days.
Before moving to Palmerston North 8 years ago, I doubt I could have named even one band from here, although I did know that the Superliquorman was the main music venue. That's changed - the Wild Horse Saloon took over as the place for bands to go and now we have Harvesters, which has a live and local music night on Wednesdays. There is also the Stomach.
Palmie has a thriving underground music scene, bands you'll never hear on commercial radio, unless you extend the boundaries a bit and include Evermore. Swamp music is our style - Prodrag, Cortina, Hellbourne, Ogden Steers, Black Pudding (playing Kings Arms soon) and Hell Fucken Rumble being the main sources at the moment. There are heavy metal bands like Turbostill and Ruptured Spleen, punkier ones like the Nana Squad and One Bad Weekend, electronic dance acts about to go national - Sense_ - or stay local, like Faker and then unclassifiable sounds produced by Sleepkill. I think we are lucky, as all of these bands and more are regularly played on Radio Control - the jagged guitar riffs of Black Pudding have just come on.
Its a small community, so band members swap around, changing styles to suit. I think this is important for the continuation of what's happening here - bands will come and go, but there are individuals who have been around for the long term, and they'll show up in a new incarnation.
There are more and more great bands happening, but in Auck there are sweet FA places to play. Am I missing some venues?? It seems to be Papa's, Kings Arms for smaller gigs and then it just jumps up to the bigger venues. Try finding a place to play on the Shore or in any other burb.
P North is thriving when you consider the choice of venues and the size to hear live music.
We toured the SI in AUG and I was most impressed with the attendance and venues we played in and most important the bands we played with. It was great to be made aware of bands like Cripple Mr. Onion, New Damage from CHCH and Kickwaterhead from P North
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I've been doing a bit of thinking ...
I've been doing a bit of thinking about how I once, a long while back I used to bitch like a Fury about international bands never coming New Zealand, and then even as recently as mid last year I was moaning on about bands never coming to Nelson.
A simple thought came to mind, in doing all this gripeing what am I really saying... New Zealand bands aren't good enough, only international will do, Nelson band are shit and I need saving????
Hell no, but it does say a lot about where we go to find our music, is it easier for us to sit at home listening to the radio and surfing the web to find the sounds? Is it too hard to get up off our bums and go and look at what is happening in our local clubs, pubs and parks?
Bugger this is sounding way harsh, and not at all the tone I wish to set at all.
Years ago there was a ad campaign titled "Don't leave Town till you've seen the Country" for the New Zealand tourism board... it premise was to get Kiwis to travel within New Zealand before doing their OE.
Surly each of us live in a vibrant community. I refuse to believe that something magical about Nelson is causing us to have sooo many good local bands, it has to be happening in other places as well, and as great as nzmusic.com is without the locals posting about their communities how is it possible for the rest of us to know what is going on????
So basically to bottom line this topic, what's happening round your place????
And as to my 2003 is feel pretty damn fine, I will let others add to this topic before I wade in with my big hairy bare hippy feet and rave about Nelson's locals ;)
OT - i'm wondering if A Low Hum will ...
OT - i'm wondering if A Low Hum will cover this sort of groundroots resurgence ... written by people for the people, slowly spreading to towns after cities ... there's really nothing out there that caters for local-ness anymore. RIU is full of advertising rather than information, and there's so much more international coverage in there - i remember when things were different, and the local city reports were actually thorough and a great guide to what was going on. NZ Musician is pretty good, but disparate ...
but back On Topic - great topic by the way Aka - stuff has been happening for some time down here in Dunedin. there's a palpable sense of hope in music, despite Radio 1's "sorry we can't play your local music cos it wasn't recorded on Pro Tools" stance. there are quite a few really great, really distinctive, musos who really care about music down here. there's something good on every weekend. every other weekend, there's something new to see. and the students aren't back yet!
it's been dry for a long long time, but i've been here long enough to see the contrast between the glory days of late Dunedin sounds and the desert that was the mid 90s, and now. exciting times we live in, us NZmusic lovers.
oh come on, please expand... if I was ...
oh come on, please expand... if I was coming down to Dunedin who should I see?
// if I was coming down to Dunedin who ...
// if I was coming down to Dunedin who should I see?
well that's the thing. stuff seems to be set up down here so that gigs (well, definitely same-genre ones) don't conflict with each other. i would say it was a matter of venues - go to Arc one night, ReFuel the next ... I like the Crown myself. I like the Strange Girls and the Fraudulents especially, but it depends on what you like yourself. I guess like most towns, the motto is just go out and see what you find. it's just that it's getting easier to find these days.
//I refuse to believe that something ...
//I refuse to believe that something magical about Nelson is causing us to have sooo many good local bands
I'm not saying Nelson doesn't have good bands, but doesn't everyone say this about whatever area they live in?
that my point Mega...
that my point Mega
Before moving to Palmerston North 8 ...
Before moving to Palmerston North 8 years ago, I doubt I could have named even one band from here, although I did know that the Superliquorman was the main music venue. That's changed - the Wild Horse Saloon took over as the place for bands to go and now we have Harvesters, which has a live and local music night on Wednesdays. There is also the Stomach.
Palmie has a thriving underground music scene, bands you'll never hear on commercial radio, unless you extend the boundaries a bit and include Evermore. Swamp music is our style - Prodrag, Cortina, Hellbourne, Ogden Steers, Black Pudding (playing Kings Arms soon) and Hell Fucken Rumble being the main sources at the moment. There are heavy metal bands like Turbostill and Ruptured Spleen, punkier ones like the Nana Squad and One Bad Weekend, electronic dance acts about to go national - Sense_ - or stay local, like Faker and then unclassifiable sounds produced by Sleepkill. I think we are lucky, as all of these bands and more are regularly played on Radio Control - the jagged guitar riffs of Black Pudding have just come on.
Its a small community, so band members swap around, changing styles to suit. I think this is important for the continuation of what's happening here - bands will come and go, but there are individuals who have been around for the long term, and they'll show up in a new incarnation.
There are more and more great bands ...
There are more and more great bands happening, but in Auck there are sweet FA places to play. Am I missing some venues?? It seems to be Papa's, Kings Arms for smaller gigs and then it just jumps up to the bigger venues. Try finding a place to play on the Shore or in any other burb.
P North is thriving when you consider the choice of venues and the size to hear live music.
We toured the SI in AUG and I was most impressed with the attendance and venues we played in and most important the bands we played with. It was great to be made aware of bands like Cripple Mr. Onion, New Damage from CHCH and Kickwaterhead from P North
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