May
Howday, all!
Well, it’s New Zealand Music Month – which of course means precious little change here at the ‘Boat, where EVERY month is NZ Music Month! Lots of good news and great music on the horizon, where to start…?!?!?
Perhaps the biggest new release (where we are concerned) is the second album, “Helplessness Blues” from the very wonderful Fleet Foxes. It is, maybe, a bit darker and weightier than their (still tremendous!) debut. The 3 part harmonies are there in all their glory, while elven singer/ songwriter Robin Pecknold seems to have happened upon a very “little man in a big cosmic universe” worldview – he’s a snowflake, a functioning cog in some big machinery, etc. Whatever – it’s terrific. And the vinyl, in particular, is quite a thing to behold – 180gm double LP, gatefold sleeve, lyrics, posters – we should be so lucky!
Also floating our (ahem!) ‘Boat is the new album from Steve Earle, “I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive”, former Lift To Experience frontman Josh T Pearson‘ s rapturously received “Last Of The Country Gentlemen”, Cave Singers “No Witch”, Lucinda Williams “Blessed”, Robbie Robertson‘s “How To Become Clairvoyant”, Paul Simon‘s (wonderful!) “So Beautiful Or So What”, The Mountain Goats All Eternals Deck”, Low “C’mon”, Elbow “Build A Rocket Boys!”, Ben Waters‘ “Boogie For Stu – A Tribute To Ian Stewart” (guests include ALL of the Stones, PJ Harvey, and Jools Holland), The Felice Brothers “Celebration, Florida”, The Kills “Blood Pressures”… so much music!
On a local tip, we have the quite lovely “Shoebox Lovesongs” from Annie Crummer‘s dad, Will Crummer, the Shapeshifter remix album “The System Is A Remix”, a lovely new vinyl LP (with download code – the perfect format?!) from local smart indie types Marineville, the new album from dub-dance bad boy Tiki, “In The World Of Light”, ex-Clean-er David Kilgour And The Heavy Eights “Left By Soft” (vinyl soon come)…
But for me, the most intriguing new release is on the excellent Soul Jazz imprint – a 2 disc compilation entitled “Delta Swamp Rock – Sounds From The South”, featuring the (until now!) resolutely unfashionable likes of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Leon Russell, Tony Joe White et al… surprisingly enjoyable.
Congratulations due, also, to Brother Simon Sweetman, he of the outstanding Blog On The Tracks music blog, who has just posted his 1000th column – read it here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/blog-on-the-tracks/4963247/Be-Thousand. Love him or hate him, there is no denying that he is sparking some of the most interesting musical discussions around – cheers, Sweets!!!
STOP PRESS!!! Spectacular new vinyl instore now from David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights, “Left By Soft”, as well as the gatefold sleeved eponymous debut from local metal behemoths Beastwars. Cor!!!
Life is good. And music is good (well, some of it…) – get amongst it!!!
Chin chin, Clan Slow Boat
