Black Seeds Find Solid Ground at Top Spot

Black Seeds Find Solid Ground at Top Spot

Rank Artist Title Label/Distributor
1 The Black Seeds Solid Ground Rhythmethod
2 Pacific Heights In a Quiet Storm TrueTone/Rhythmethod
3 Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords Rhythmethod
4 Tiki Past, Present, Future Dirty Dub/Rhythmethod
5 The Clean Mashed Arch Hill/ Rhythmethod
6 Kora Kora Kora/Border
7 Jess Chambers And the Firefly Orchestra Rhythmethod
8 Flip Grater Be All and End All Maiden Records
9 The Nomad Selected Works Rhythmethod
10 Optimus Gryme Annihilation of the Ego EP Border
11 Renee-Louise Carafice Tells You To Fight Monkey/Rhythmethod
12 Little Bushman Pendulum Rhythmethod
13 Little Bushman The Onus of Sand Rhythmethod
14 The Naked and Famous This Machine EP Round Trip Mars
15 Opshop Second Hand Planet 174 East
16 Fat Freddy’s Drop Based On A True Story Rhythmethod
17 The Hot Grits It’s Too Drunk to be This Early Monkey/Rhythmethod
18 Anna Rugis Island Dreams: A Musical Adventure Ode/Rhythmethod
19 Shapeshifter Soulstice TrueTone/Rhythmethod
20 Coco Solid The Radical Bad Attack Border

(Shows sales from 1 – 31 August 2008. Compiled from outbound sales registered at selected music retailers by Media Sauce Ltd. for IMNZ. Eligibility requires IMNZ membership or by registration fee. For further information on IMNZ releases, labels or membership contact IMNZ Operations Manager Renee Jones.)

September/October News

Firstly, kia ora to our new members Creepshow Productions, Eclipse Music, Dunedinmusic.com, Kolab and Charlie Horse Records. And good skills were shown by Jason Kerrison, Bobby Kennedy, Matt Treacy and Clinton Harris – a.k.a. Opshop - who won the 2008 APRA Silver Scroll award and the Most Performed Work in New Zealand for their song One Day, and also Ruia Aperahama who won the APRA Maioha Award celebrating contemporary Maori music with Rere Reta Rere Reta. Best of luck also to our artists who are in the running for awards at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards tonight.

The Ruby Suns and The Naked and Famous will be performing along with Cut Off Your Hands and Bang Bang Eche at the New Zealand Showcase on October 22 at this year’s CMJ which is hosted by the NZ Music Commission and NZ On Air. And congratulations go out to IMNZ Outward Sound recipients Little Bushman (for Australia), Pitch Black (for the US), The Naked & Famous (for the US), Kolab (for Australia) and Coco Solid (for London, Berlin and New York). Also well done also to the IMNZ winners of the Juice TV Awards held on September 30: Nesian Mystik, Tahuna Breaks and Tiki Taane, who was the Video Artist of the Year.

We’d like to say ‘good work!’ to the IMNZ artists in the first Big Day Out announcement: Tiki Taane, The Black Seeds, The Datsuns, Nesian Mystik, Cobra Khan, Ladi 6 and The Naked And Famous; you can catch them on Friday January 16th Auckland Mt Smart Stadium. And artists for the Vodafone Homegrown festival have just been announced for March 14 2009; the IMNZ contingent includes Kora, Opshop, The Black Seeds, Tiki, Tahuna Breaks, Concord Dawn, Head Like A Hole, State of Mind, Fur Patrol, Dick Johnson, The Coshercot Honeys, Tiger Tones and DJ Reno.

There are two New Zealand finalists in the 3rd annual US-based Pixel Awards, which recognise cutting-edge websites - one of which is Wellington interactive agency Resn (resn.co.nz) in the Music category for Luke Buda’s website (specialsurprise.co.nz). It was also picked by UK-based FWA (Favourite Website Awards) as ‘Site of the Day’. Resn have previously won at the SXSW Interactive awards and been an Official Honouree in the Webby awards for their work on Minuit’s website. The other NZ finalist is Taranaki-based company Momentum for the vodka jelly RTD site moonjoos.com. In fashion news, for the fourth year running Loop produced the official soundtrack for Air NZ Fashion Week; the tracklisting is influenced by designers such as Huffer, Stolen Girlfriends Club, Lucie Boshier, Hailwood, Crowed Elevator, Cybele and more and was only available at Fashion Week in September.

Te Vaka will tour Hawaii in October/November 2008, performing in - to name but a few towns - Honolulu, Maui, Molokai and Hawaii. If you’re quick you may still be able to get your mitts on a copy of Coco Solid’s very limited edition pink 12” ‘Graffiti Girls For Life’ which was pressed at Sydney’s Vinyl Factory. Coco heads to Barcelona this month for the Red Bull Music Academy 2008. Flip Grater leaves in late October for a 2-month tour through Europe. She’ll be hitting 7 countries and playing 14 shows while collecting recipes for her second book, ‘The Cookbook Tour Europe’. Flip plays a farewell show in Christchurch on October 17th with The Eastern at the Dux de Lux.

Since introducing her new charity initiative ‘Yulia's Christmas’ Yulia's performances have inspired more than $550,000 in donations to the charity – following her recent performance at the Cholmondeley Children's Home corporate fundraiser, one philanthropist pledged a single donation of $500,000 after Yulia performed her song Russia and talked about being born into Russian poverty, describing life for her orphaned grandmother. Russia was recently placed as a finalist in the UK Songwriting Contest; it’s one of the few foreign language songs to place in the popular competition. You can find more information about Yulia's Christmas at her website. Yulia has also collaborated with husband Glyn MacLean under the instrumental brand Alms Electronica. Their ‘New Zealand Stories’ CD is targeted at raising awareness of humanitarian causes, ecological and environmental issues and endangered species; the pair are donating Alms Electronica music and live performances to Greenpeace to use in upcoming campaigns with the tune Awaken linked to the endangered Hector’s Dolphin.

As of September 29th Local Music is being distributed by Shock Records NZ; SAM (Serious About Music) will be slowly wound down and its artist booking and non-traditional retail sales activities will be taken over directly by Local Music. Whirimako Black is heading to Seoul and Taipei in November, and Australia twice in September/October for private shows. She also features on 4 tracks on the new Salmonella Dub album ‘Feel the Seasons Change’ as well as on the TV talent show Maorioke, which is due to hit screens in October, plus she’s the feature act at Pao Pao Pao for the 4th year in a row in late October in Wellington. House of Shem have just confirmed their appearance at the Parachute Festival 2009, and they are to get a Hawaiian release by Christmas - the Hawaiian market loves their upbeat style and positive messages and the band will tour there in 2009; demand is also coming from New Caledonia.

In some very unfortunate news, Silverwood Studio’s main studio in Blenheim was flooded to a depth of 33cm on August 26 and again on September 9 due to a weather bomb in Marlborough. They lost most of their amps and speakers, and many resources such as music sheets etc, so it may be some time before things get back to normal. We wish them all the very best in getting things back to working order!

Concord Dawn continue their quest for world domination, and may well succeed with dates over the next few months in Holland, the Czech Republic, Australia, the US, Canada, England, Russia, and shows in New Zealand in December/January. Scribe has been selected to be the support for the Kayne West Australia and New Zealand tour along with US star Nas; the tour starts December 1st in Auckland and goes to Wellington, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Label mate PNC returns with his new ‘80s-tinged song Take Me Home, which features talented newcomer Julie Ta'Ale. Tiki has recently released a track entitled David Lange, You Da Bomb, which is based on David Lange’s legendary anti-nuclear Oxford Union speech; you can find it on his site and at Amplifier.

October is shaping up as a huge month for 1157 with new releases from both Antagonist A.D ('We Are the Dead’, October 6th in NZ and Australia) and Cobra Khan (‘Helgorithms’, October 27th). Look out for Antagonist A.D on the road throughout October with Aussie giants Parkway Drive, along with various headlining shows in between, before returning to Australia in support of the Australian release of ‘We Are the Dead’. Also keep your eyes and ears peeled for Cobra Khan’s first single Shutter on radio & music television now. Both Cobra Khan and Antagonist A.D will be playing at the Kings Arms on October 31st for a Halloween spectacular. Further South, Tainted will be amongst the local supports at their Christchurch show on October 19, which will also serve as the release show for Tainted’s long-awaited second album ‘Carved and Created’. The band will take to the road in November for a full national tour to give fans a chance to hear the album live and loud.

About to be set free this month is the third full-length self-titled Rhombus album. For the past couple of years Rhombus have been working hard on the live circuit here and in Australia and Japan. Alongside Rhombus stalwarts, this album includes international guests such as original Studio One DJ/singer Ranking Joe, fellow Jamaican Junior Kelly, and Japanese MCs Piyo, Ayumu, Chikau and Koursuke; and beats to the track Article 9 were first struck somewhere between Guatemala and Mexico while the band was aboard the Japan-based global NGO Peace Boat.

Hellsquad Records have announced the imminent release this month of the fourth album by rock'n'roll powerlords The Datsuns. From full throttle rock'n'roll to psychedelia to pop melodies, this is The Datsuns’ anticipated follow-up to 2006's ‘Smoke & Mirrors’; it was recorded early 2008 at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenborg, Sweden and self-produced. They’re touring Australia in December with support from USA band Black Diamond Heavies.

‘No Light’ is the new EP from The Naked And Famous; their next stop is NYC for CMJ this month. SJD has done gone done it again with the ‘darkadelic’ new album Dayglo Spectres - if you’re up for a visual primer, before No Telling Where gets a retinoid reception in October/November, have a dekko at Sean Grattan’s brilliant promo–thingy in Footage on the Round Trip Mars website. October 6 is the big reveal for ‘Dayglo Spectres’ with a release party at 4.20 on K Road, October 11th featuring support from Rad System and Pig Out.

The Weather are releasing their debut CD ‘Aroha Ave’ which features friends and family contributing to an album broadly themed around living in Auckland, raising a family and living in Aroha Ave. The Weather is Matthew Bannister whose former bands include Sneaky Feelings and the Dribbling Darts of Love, and here he has the help of Alice Bulmer, Paula Law, Michael Beck and a cast of assorted extras; ‘Aroha Ave’ was recorded by Ed Cake (Bressa Creeting Cake, Pie Warmer, he’s produced Anika Moa and Don McGlashan). Powertool Records also presents the fourth album from Sandra Bell, ‘White Nights’, written mostly in Berlin where she lived from 2001-2006. Bell began her musical career in Auckland in the late 80s with recordings on Industrial Tapes; other releases included Marie and the Atom and the Kiwi Animal. She has worked with Peter Jefferies (This Kind of Punishment) and released her first solo album ‘Dreams of Falling’ on the legendary label Xpressway in New Zealand in '92 and on a Belgian label worldwide, which brought her international recognition leading to a tour of the US with Peter Jefferies and Alastair Galbraith which was followed by further international recognition for her albums and shows. She’s currently teamed up with US artist Azalia Snail for a tour of New Zealand this month. Snail gained recognition as a pioneering force in the underground "lo-fi" movement of the 1990's; she has released music on labels such as Sub Pop and Dark Beloved Cloud, who launched their label with a split 7" by Azalia and Sebadoh. Snail (her real name) has toured consistently throughout the USA and Europe with such acts as Low, Sebadoh, The Black Heart Procession, Sportsguitar and Illyah Kuryahkin.

Celebrating its 19th year, Parachute 09 is gearing up for January 23, with a line-up including US platinum album sellers Casting Crowns, David Crowder Band, national treasure Dave Dobbyn, Portland rockers Kutless and Atlanta's crunk rockers Family Force 5. Parachute have also set their sights on an Australian Parachute Festival in the not too distant future and they plan to give our trans-Tasman neighbours a preview with a concert or 2 in Australia running alongside P09 here. And the Parachute Band paints a new musical canvas with the release of ‘Technicolor’ on October 13, the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Roadmaps And Revelations’, which had marked the debut of the new look band. The new album offers up eleven songs written by members of the band as well as other New Zealand songwriters; aspects of the album are inspired by the Parachute Band’s work with World Vision in Rwanda, and ‘Technicolour’ comes with a bonus DVD featuring a live concert from last year’s Parachute Festival and a behind-the-scenes documentary.

The new She'll Be Right Records music/poetry collaboration CD/book release gig in Christchurch last month as part of the Christchurch Writers’ Festival was a great success. The package, called ‘The Original Branch Manual’, contains 7 songs, 7 poems and 7 illustrations and is available now in shops. Tracks from recent albums by Jim Christy, Trillion and The Original Branch Manual have been chosen to feature alongside other international spoken word artists in the latest issue of Australian poetry anthology series CD/book package ‘Going Down Swinging’ (issue no. 27). Jim Christy is touring Australia in November/December with Trillion and both are also performing at the launch of Going Down Swinging. The Ragamuffin Children have a show coming up on Saturday October 11 in Christchurch with Demarnia Lloyd (Mink, Cloudboy); and their new website is now online at ragamuffinchildren.com.

Reb Fountain had a ball completing her nationwide Winter tour with Johnny Barker and she’s just launched her new studio album ‘Holster’ which hit shelves on October 6; she’ll be on the road again to play the album live so check out her tour dates. And just back from huge gigs at the Queenstown and Nelson Winter Festivals, dDub are about to launch the re-package of their ‘Medicine Man’ album with a bonus DVD which includes 7 videos, brand new live footage plus interviews with the band. Their new single and video Making My Way Home is also doing the media rounds right now. So far the album has spent 3 weeks on the NZ top 40 Charts and debuted at Number 2 on the IMNZ charts and Number 4 on the NZ iTunes Album charts.

‘Shane’s Addiction’ from Deth Becomes Shane is the result of a day at ‘The Dank’ (Puppy Killer Records recording studio) and 100 cans. This Auckland City punk rock supergroup is a horrible mash of members from such acts as Missing Teeth, Hilt, Afatron, Roofdog, Poisoners, The Dregs, Offbeats, 24/7, The Murderchord, Omen, Horsearmour, Milden, Alcapony The Casio Cowboy, SMD, Encyclopaedia Slaytanica, Filthy Handshake, Sunblock Corpse, Deans Demented Deathfarm and The Singer From His Own Shower - it’s a new take on white boy ska with fleeting moments of rock/rap, punk and metal.

In summer 2007 a bunch of Wellington musicians got together in an old woolshed in the Takaka Valley owned by filmmaker Gaylene Preston to record some songs, and thus The Woolshed Sessions band and album was born. Starring in The Woolshed Sessions are Age Pryor, Andy Hummel, Jess Chambers, Justin Firefly Clarke, Al Fraser, Lee Prebble, Peter Hill and Brett Skinner. A hand-numbered limited edition ‘The Woolshed Sessions’ CD and booklet with documentary photographs by Andy Morley-Hall is available this month, and to mark the occasion the musicians are bringing the woolshed experience live on stage at BATS Theatre, Wellington and The Nelson Arts Festival.

Beginning in 2005 as a fast punk rock’n’roll band (maybe The Easybeats meets Black Flag?), Pt Chevalier’s DHDFDs’ sound has morphed into something weirder as Bowie, The Velvet Underground and punk rock seeped deeper into their lives. ‘Fromage Du Pouvoir’ is their second EP, following up 2006’s brilliantly titled ‘Pastor of Muppets’. With most of them only just old enough to drink, they already have shows supporting the Black Lips, the Mint Chicks and Die! Die! Die! under their belts, and they’ve just completed a 8 city tour in Japan with Osaka’s notorious King Brothers - “the most dangerous band in Japan”. And speaking of Die! Die! Die!, the band returns home for a series of shows in November. Their Dunedin homecoming show on November 6 includes a rare live outing by Conray (Dale Cotton with Aidan Fraser) and the live debut of Tristan Dingemans' (HDU) new band Mountain Eater.

Oakley ‘O.G.’ Grenell breathes new life into his critically-acclaimed album ‘Moving On’ (released April 2008) with the release of the video for the Moving On single and news of a national tour. O.G’s live band have just played two sell-out shows with the Black Seeds in Christchurch and now Oakley and MC KP will treat the North Island to some good-old mashing of the sound system. The album was released in Australia on September 13 2008 through AlleyKat Records/Beat Broker/MGM; OG and MC Switch (Sunshine Sound System) will be touring Australia to promote the album release with a series of performances.

After playing a good long series of shows earlier this year, An Emerald City have been hiding away creating new music as they prepare to record their debut album in December in a special location which has never been used before to record an album. They then launch into playing Rhythm and Vines on the 30th of December, the Canaan Downs festival in Takaka on the 1st of January, and the Mussel Inn in Onekaka on January 3rd. The album should be out around February/March.
Living National Treasure Richard Nunns, a respected authority on historic Maori instrumentation, collaborated in September with legendary New York pianist Marilyn Crispel and Wellington saxophonist and dynamic improviser Jeff Henderson; they were also supported by the New Pacific Music Ensemble. Auckland fans of composer John Psathas were in for a treat when the Auckland Chamber Orchestra delivered a wall-to-wall Psathas programme recently.

Kora has been selected to play at the first Peak Festival, which will take place on the 3rd of January 2009 at the Queenstown Events Centre, and will become an annual one-day music event. The festival will host two stages: the venue’s cricket ground is the main stage, while the indoor stadium is to be the Ministry Of Sound room, comprising local and international DJs. Also announced so far are Salmonella Dub and UK dance act the Utah Saints. It was the launch pad of Fat Freddy’s Drop and now the name Live at the Matterhorn returns to showcase of a rising star: L.A. Mitchell announces the release of her new album ‘Live at the Matterhorn’ which was recorded on one special evening on April 23 this year. Mitchell will reprise her live show with two performances to launch the album, performing at Wellington's The Matterhorn on October 8 and Auckland's Khuja Lounge October 9.

New and Forthcoming Releases

Antagonist A.D. ‘We Are The Dead’, Sandra Bell ‘White Nights’, The Black Seeds ‘Solid Ground’, Bond Street Band ‘The Mapmaker’s Art’, Brand New Math ‘Moustache Party’, Luke Buda ‘Vesuvius’, Renee-Louise Carafice ‘Tells You to Fight’, Jess Chambers ‘And the Firefly Orchestra’, Jim Christy ‘God’s Little Angle’, Cobra Khan ‘Helgorithms’, Deth Becomes Shane ‘Shane’s Addiction’, The Clean ‘Mashed’, Coco Solid ‘Graffiti Girls 4 Life’ 12”, Sonny Day Collection, Dub Asylum ‘Ba Ba Boom’, Fat Freddy’s Drop album, Flowz ‘In The Heart of The City’, Paddy Free and Richard Nunns ‘Karekare: Te Reo O Te Whenua’, Fur Patrol ‘Local Kid’, Frank Gibson Jnr ‘Parallel 37’, Flip Grater ‘Be All and End All’, Hayley J Hansell ‘Space in Time’ EP, The Kingites ‘Feathers of Peace, Kolab ‘What Comes Next’, Ladi 6 ‘Time Is Not Much’, Malcontent ‘Second Fiddle’, The Midnights ‘Keep Calling’, L.A. Mitchell ‘Live at the Matterhorn’, The Naked And Famous ‘No Light’ EP, Pacific Heights ‘In A Quiet Storm’, PNC Take Me Home single, The Potheads ‘No Myths, Just Legends’, Rapture Ruckus ‘Live at Mystery Creek’, Recliner ‘The Orchid Door’, Rhombus ‘Rhombus’, Briar Ross ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, Ruia ‘12:24’, Liam Ryan ’Mississippi to Mauao’, Jane Siene ’LoveDeathSexRoad’, SJD ‘Dayglo Spectres’, Tainted ‘Carved & Created’, Various ‘Bulletholes 3 – The Best is Yet To Come’, Various ‘The Disruptiv Mixtape Vol 5’, Various ‘Music 4 Mauis’, Various ‘Te Riu Papara’, The Weather ‘Aroha Ave’, Leon Wharekura ‘It’s A Love Thing’, White Swan Black Swan ‘White Swan Black Swan’ (Double Mini album), Windy City Strugglers ‘Shine On’, The Woolshed Sessions ‘The Woolshed Sessions’, Neil Worboys and the Real Time Liners ‘Some Day Soon’, Ziko ‘Ghostships’

Tours
Sandra Bell and Azalia Snail: OCTOBER: Tuesday 7 Independent Nelson with John White; Wednesday 8 Mighty Mighty Wellington with Vorn and John White; Thursday 9 Eye Of The Night Wanganui; Saturday 11 Wine Cellar Auckland with Chris Knox

Big Day Out: JANUARY 16 2009: with Tiki Taane, The Black Seeds, The Datsuns, Nesian Mystik, Cobra Khan, Ladi 6, The Naked And Famous and more

Concord Dawn: DECEMBER: 20th Coherent Auckland, 27th Gisborne, Rhythm n’ Vines, 31st Wellington

Delgirl: OCTOBER: 10 Art Gallery Ashburton, 11 Wunderbar Lyttleton, 12 Commerce Club Christchurch

dDub ‘Early Early Summer Tour 2008’: OCTOBER: 10th Galatos + Luke Thompson – Auckland, 11th Flow + Luke Thompson – Hamilton

Die! Die! Die!: NOVEMBER: 6TH Bennu, Dunedin, with Conray, Mountain Eater, Bennu Bar, 7TH Dunedin Musicians Club, ALL AGES, with Sewage, doors 6.30pm, 8TH Dux De Lux Christchurch with Mountain Eater, 9TH Southern Amp, 13TH Bodega, Wellington, 14TH Eye of Night Wanganui, 15TH Zen Auckland

George And Queen: OCTOBER: 18 Wellington – Happy

Flip Grater farewell show: OCTOBER 17th with The Eastern at the Dux de Lux.

House Of Shem: DECEMBER: 20th Coromandel, 28th Tauranga, 29th Rhythm & Vines

Danny McCrum: OCTOBER: 17 Danny Mc Crum and Ben Jurisich Duo SPE Bar Auckland 6.30pm, 18 The Danny McCrum Band, Grand Central Band and Luke Thompson, Remuera Spring Festival 10am – 4pm Remuera Rd

L.A. Mitchell: OCTOBER: 8 The Matterhorn Wellington, 9 Khuja Lounge Auckland

Mole Music and New Friends Present Hold On To Your Genre Pt. One featuring: Pig Out, Sharpie Crows, Bionic Pixie, Tourettes, White Birds and Lemons, Sam Hamilton, Mr Hayday, Cry Wolf - Kings Arms Tavern, October 10th

The Nomad: Walkabout Tour 2008 schedule: OCTOBER: 10 Christchurch Double Happy, 11 Westport Denniston Dog, 18 Rotorua Barbaralla

OG: NOVEMBER: 9/11/08 Southern Amp, 2009: 2/1/09 OG Live Band Mussel Inn, 10/1/09 OG Live Band Parihaka, 21/3/09 OG Live Band I-Nation Festival Whitecliffs

The Pumphouse Theatre presents: Nathan Haines Tuesday 14 October, Goldenhorse 15 October, Don McGlashan with support from the Sami Sisters Friday 17 October

SJD with Pig Out and Rad System ‘Dayglo Spectres’ release party: OCTOBER 11, 4.20 Auckland

Tainted ‘Carved and Created’ album release tour: OCTOBER: 19 Christchurch Album Release party with Parkway Drive The Civic; NOVEMBER: 9 Christchurch Southern Amp Westpac Trust Stadium, 13 Palmerston North Bar Mode, 14 Wellington Valve supporting Psycroptic from Australia, 15 Wellington ALL AGES Zeal, 20 Tauranga ALL AGES Chaos HQ; NOVEMBER 21 Hamilton Axces Bar, 22 Auckland Oblivion with Just One Fix

Vodafone Homegrown: MARCH 14 2009: with Kora, Opshop, The Black Seeds, Tiki, Tahuna Breaks, Concord Dawn, Head Like A Hole, State of Mind, Fur Patrol, Dick Johnson, The Coshercot Honeys, Tiger Tones and DJ Reno and more.

The Woolshed Sessions: OCTOBER: 9 BATS Theatre Wellington, 23 Nelson Arts Festival
Yulia's Charity Gigs: NOVEMBER: 15 - "Coffee with a Conscience" - Salvation Army National HQ Women's Brunch, 16 Guest Soloist Wellington Male Voice Choir, Free Ambulance fundraiser concert, 22 Star Jam, Auckland Concert, 30 Mayoral Concert, Wellington; DECEMBER 4 St Johns in City Christmas Concert 15 Cancer Society - Cancer Patients & Staff tribute concert

ENDS

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