Yes, I know I said I'd write about Spotify this week -- and I would probably have done so if I'd used it this week. But ... I haven't. I find it fiddly and not all that much fun, but that's probably because I haven't completed the learning curve. I confess, this fascinating post on one indie label's receipts from streaming music services has not improved my disposition towards Spotify, which appears to be easily the most miserly of the streamers.
I am, however, continuing to enjoy our new sponsor's product, doubters notwithstanding. The following have pleased me on The Audience this week:
• A really, really beautiful song called 'Night Swimmer' by Watercolours, aka Chelsea Jade Metcalf. I played it, voted for it and went and bought another one of her songs on Bandcamp. She performed 'Night Swimmer' for the first of Rodney Fisher's Songs from the Backyard concerts --and explains a little about herself in the video:
• Wellington duo Black City Lights, whose track 'Get Away' is languid, swooshy electronica. Free download, too.
• A delicate, shimmering bit of post-rock from sink / sink.
• And in a wholly different vein, Happiness Stan's galloping literary country-rock song 'Melville's Great White Whale', which, among other things, namechecks Kierkegaard. (Yeah, Stan's from Christchurch.)
Also, Loui the Zu, the shit-hot young Zimbabwe-born "alternative hip hop" artist I noted last week, has a whole bunch of tracks downloadable on Soundcloud, including this one:
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Meanwhile, Lawrence Arabia has a video for 'Travelling Shoes', the first single from his forthcoming album The Sparrow. It was directed by Hugh Sundae at the Easter weekend album preview at Whangateau Hall:
He'll be taking the same (or a similar) lineup on tour for the album release next month. The dates for that are Christchurch, St Michaels and All Angels, July 13; Dunedin, Sammy's, July 14; Auckland Town Hall, July 20; and Wellington, The Opera House, July 22. Details on ticketing etc are on his website. You might want to hurry -- the Auckland show is already all but sold out.
But! I have a double pass to give away for each date on the tour. Just email me by clicking the little envelope icon at the bottom of this post and put "Lawrence" and the centre where you want to go to the gig in the subject line. And don't say I never do anything for you.
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My auntie sent me a VHS of Part 1 of the BBC's new three-part history Punk Britannia, which covers the pub-rock years up to the arrival of the Sex Pistols, and I bloody loved it. I wouldn't expect it to turn up on TV here for a long time, if ever, but it's already on YouTube. The first chunk is here:
(If you prefer to have your auntie send you these things on VHS, look here.)
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And, finally, a couple of remixes posted recently on Soundcloud by the veteran DJ Bobby Busnach. His dirty, grainy style really suits Aretha's classic 'Rock Steady'
And I was gutted that I missed the download on his stonking job on 'I Feel Love'
Oh, all right, one more: another of those how-the-hell-does he-do-it reggae reworks by JT:
The Hard News Friday Music Post is sponsored by:
