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