how could you not sign someone with this much sartorial sense?Loc­al lads The Phoenix Found­a­tion con­tin­ue their well-paced rise to the top of the music­al pile, with the news that they’ve signed a deal with Fest­iv­al Mush­room Records (FMR). The band have appar­ently been the sub­ject of a ‘bid­ding war’ amongst at least a couple of the big­ger Auck­land-based labels, with some fine win­ing and din­ing action being laid down in attempts to woo the hir­sute quin­tet.

The guys are obvi­ously pleased with how things have worked out. Gui­tar­ist Sam Scott is repor­ted as say­ing: “We’re all so excited to sign with FMR … ‘coz we are broke arse mutha fuck­ers. I am per­son­ally very keen on drink­ing beer at their office and steal­ing as much Fly­ing Nun stuff as I can until they call the cops on me for lift­ing those ori­gin­al Dave Mitchell 3Ds cov­er paint­ings.”

The first fruit of this deal is going to be a new single, the name of which eludes us at the moment. ‘Hitch­cock’ – the first single off the new album (entitled Pegas­us, and now sched­uled for an April release), was released a while back, and was a com­plete cork­er, so we’re expect­ing more of the same.

And if you don’t have the Phoenix Found­a­tion’s first album – Horse Power – in your col­lec­tion (it was nom­in­ated for best album of the year at last year’s NZ Music Awards, would­n’t you know, so it must be good), then do your­self a favour and buy it now. And keep an eye out for some upcom­ing gigs by the band:

Fri 18th Feb – The Saw­mill Cafe, Leigh
Sun 20th Feb – 11.30 am – The Lit­tle­weed Fest­iv­al, Katikati
Sun 20th Feb – 6.30pm – 95bFM Sum­mer Series, Albert Park, Auck­land
Sat 26th Feb – The Cuba St Car­ni­val, Wel­ling­ton.