More NZ Music month goodness is upon us, with the release of the Phoenix Foundation’s Samuel Flynn Scott’s solo album – ‘The Hunt Brings Us Life‘.
Those of us lucky enough to receive sneak preview copies were also amused by the very excellent accompanying press release courtesy of ‘Prof’ Russell Brown, which we recommend you go to and read in its entirety over at Public Address. If only all musical acts could approach their PR with such good humour. (Tellingly enough, the last CD that had anything remotely as good was fellow Phoenecian Luke Buda’s PR for his also recently released ‘Special Surprise‘ album, which featured photos of Luke as Rambo and Hercules (although not, we were disappointed to see, Benny from Abba (although, we did fix that))).
As if all this Phoenix Foundation members doing their own thing wasn’t enough, we get the added bonus of a broadcast of Scott’s other ‘other’ band – Bunnies on Ponies – live at Bar Bodega, on National Radio tonight (web stream available here). At 7:30pm. When … hold on … there’s something else on .. around then? Anyway, Scott describes Bunnies on Ponies as…
…hotch potch kind of folk band that combines gentle folk
songs with slightly aggressive improvised arrangements.We know exactly what he means. And, for those who don’t, you can just tune in and find out.
gene pool deletion in progress, originally uploaded by maxcherry. Couldn’t help but draw more attention to this particular photo, spotted in the Wellington Flickr Photo Pool today. Says maxcherry, the photo-taker… nothing wrong with towing a motorcycle – can be safely done. The rider has winds just one coil around the bar, and grips the […]
…our sandwich partner would, give or take a few miles, be Salamanca, Spain. We’re not sure if this is the rationale behind the naming of the Kelburn road that shares the name (a quick Google reveals that Lord Wellington fought a famous battle there – in Spain, that is, not up Kelburn way – in […]
Wellington Public Library is getting into the spirit of NZ Music Month with a series of free concerts of the course of this week. Our pick of the bunch is the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, featuring the talents of Flight of the Conchords Bret McKenzie and local songsmith Age Pryor, as well as an ever-expanding […]
Our post on Wellington’s 12th placing in the recent Mercer HR Quality of Life table has had the pleasant side-effect of catapaulting Wellington (and the Wellingtonista) to the top of the Google rankings for a search on ‘nicest city in the world’. We’ll take Google’s word over Mercer’s any day.
A new survey published by Mercer Human Resource Consulting rates Wellington as the 12th best city to live in, based on the quality of living offered to residents. Auckland comes in a very respectable 5th, with the rest of the top 12 filled out by Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bern, Sydney and Copenhagen.
American cities don’t get a show-in until Honolulu gets them off the mark at 27th (much to the delight of the Canadian press, who aren’t shy about pointing out their southern neighbours lower placings).
Can’t say the presence of Dusseldorf and Bern in the top 10 fills us with a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of the survey, though.
Luke Buda – Benny Andersson (ABBA) impersonator extraordinaire, and one of the frontmen of Wellington band The Phoenix Foundation – has just released his debut solo album ‘Special Surprise‘ (following on from his 2004 release ‘The C-Sides’ mini-album, which is still available over at Slow Boat Records so we’re told).
And it sounds great. Fans of The Phoenix Foundation will know roughly what to expect: lots of nice melodies and guitar action, but with a touch more humour and a lot more synth action than the two ‘Phoenecian’ albums to date. But don’t believe us, believe the paid professional reviewers. Says Lindsay Davis of the Dominion…
Musically, the album is eclectic, mixing the gunslinging rock on the ‘Stallion’ to the Latin feel of ‘Sauerkraut Bossa’, which combines a cheesy electro-lounge rhythm with organ washes and yet somehow you are hooked. ‘Slav to the Rhythm’ updates mid-period Bowie with a slick lyric that morphs into a a driving fuzzed conclusion that would make the Tin Machine blush.
…and Lyndon Walker of Rip it Up…
With lots of soft melodies, mellow synths and a sound which is part Phoenix Foundation and part his own, this album is a great listen from beginning to end…
Any Aucklanders who happen to be reading this blog should be aware that Buda is playing up at the Kings Arms this Saturday (8th April) with SJD, and for us Wellingtonians, more gigs are apparently in
Tom over at WellUrban has been leading the campaign to get Wellington added to the excellent GridSkipper site (an online urban travel guide which is part of the same online blog empire that includes Gawker, Defamer and Gizmodo, amongst others). As such, Wellington is now in competition with Baku – capital of Azerbaijan – for […]
Jimmy Jangles has produced a handy guide to knowing which part the Greater Wellington region you’re from… You know you’re from Wellington when… You know you’re from The Hutt when… You know you’re from Porirua when… Particularly like the Wellington trait of being able to “…detect 27 different shades of black suit.” UPDATE! Old news […]