shihad!Des­pite the fact that it’s New Zea­l­and Music Month, there’s no shame in cel­eb­rat­ing the fact that the #1 and #2 spots in the New Zea­l­and album charts are taken up by Wel­ling­ton bands.

Wel­ling­ton’s ori­gin­al and now reborn rock riff-meisters Shi­had’s sixth album Love is the New Hate is being kept at only being kept at bay from the top spot by loc­al, and very laid­back, soul-dub-reagge legends Fat Freddy’s Drop, whose debut stu­dio album Based on a True Story is the first loc­ally-pro­duced indie-dis­trib­uted album to go straight to #1 on its first week of release in this coun­try.

And with the release of The Phoenix Found­a­tion’s second album Pegas­us tomor­row (Mon 16 May 2005), there’s the chance we may see three albums from loc­al bands occupy­ing the upper reaches of the album charts for a few weeks to come.

Shi­had, Fat Freddy’s Drop and The Phoenix Found­a­tion will all be tour­ing soon, and we guar­an­tee* that at least one of the bands is likely to fall into your poten­tial gig-going para­met­ers, and that you will, indeed, enjoy the show.

* not an actu­al guar­an­tee