BF2S Forums NZ Music Month 2006 & 2007

May 19/20 - I'm not even sure if people are keeping up with this any more but oh well... I still insist you guys listen to the music though. Don't even read my drivel just listen to the music!


If I don't know what to listen to while riding the bus, some Steriogram always puts me in the right mood.
I guess you could say that Steriogram are the not-so-serious side of New Zealand music. They certainly make fun music with a mixture of rap and rock and their unique sound, and you can always be in a mood for some of their music.

Steriogram are fairly successful in terms of New Zealand musicians. Randomly some freelance dude from Capitol Records saw their music video for their song "White Trash" and pretty much had them instantly signed them up. Up to that stage Steriogram's successes had all been done by themselves, all videos all recordings had all being initiated by them, which makes them definatly deserving for a neat record deal.

A while ago Steriogram were nominated for a Grammy. However you feel about that award, it's pretty impressive for a New Zeland band to get that far. Since of course, the Grammys only really accomodate for commercially viable music, the band was nominated for their video "Walkie Talkie Man", which I think still holds the record for the most expensive music video ever produced - which is quite a change from the 'White Trash' video which was produced on a shoestring budget with tons of favors.

Some of you may be familliar with Steriogram, (but only in a very small way.) Apple bought "Walkie Talkie Man" to appear on the global iPod ads, after the contract with Aussie rockers 'Jet' had expired.

Rap vocallist and sounds dude Tyson Kennedy is also some of the inspiration for the main character of the comic I'm in the middle of starting to write...

I've chosen three tracks, the first, 'Walkie-talkie Man' is the most well known, (see the Grammy nominated and incredibly expensive video by clicking Here, (Opens in Windows media player.)
Secondly the song 'On and On' because it's one of my favorites and shows maybe a more serious side to the band(?)
Lastely, 'White Trash.' I had to go for the origonal rather than the optimised one thanks to copy protection on their CD "Schmack" but it's good, and makes me laugh. The video's a riot too with Tyson sporting a mullet that would make Joe Dirt blush, with some pretty funky white trash riverdance at the end. It's all on their site, www.steriogram.com if you care.
(A note: 'White Trash' came out years before Joe Dirt existed, dispite the similarities between him and Tyson in this video.)

Steriogram - Walkie-Talkie Man

Steriogram - On and On

Steriogram - White Trash

Next time - May 21/22: Weta

(I'm likely to go back and do bands I missed after that. )

Man thanks for making this post. I am really into good music. I know people have vary degree of what they feel constitues this, but I think music is music and people should not harp on you for what you like. I know this a bit off topic but I feel like this might be good place to post this. I have recently been listening to a band from australia(clost to NZ) called Wolfmother. The more I listen to these guys I get the feeling that they are reincarnation of Black Sabbath. I think everyone should def check them if you have never heard of them. Anyways sorry to branch off topic but I had to share.

May 25/26


Okay, now I'm going to get into some specific genres, todays being Electronica. Concord Dawn are two guys and a couple of computers. Or something.

You know I really don't understand electronica. My sister gets me into all this type of thing. What I know is that Concord Dawn write music that they say 'is guarunteed to frighten small children'. I suppose that'd be correct, but as a kid I was frightened fairly easily.

The song I've chosen, "Morning Light" was the first Concord Dawn track I heard. I'm no critic of electronic music really, so maybe a techno-junkie could give me some advice to whether this is good or not. I like it though and to get me to like anything techno is a pretty good accomplishment. Well done Concord Dawn.

Concord Dawn - Morning Light

Next time - May 27/28: Goodshirt

(By the way, since there's only a few days left of NZMM and heaps of bands I havn't covered, PM me if you have a genre request and I can see what I can find.)

nice, i liked alot of the music scene when i was down there.... even the radio was better cause they didnt play the censored versions like they do up here in canada. i mostly got into the hip hop from nz because thats what my wife is into(shes from queenstown) but i liked it. on a side note i loved watching bro-town, i got the first seasons dvd.

May 29/30

Okay, today I'm not doing one artist, simply because I couldn't decide on one to do. There are so many worthies that I have left out, so rather than re-visit old genres I've decided to touch on ones that haven’t had a mention yet.

First off, speed/thrash/death/whateverthefuckitis metal
The NZ version of this is 8 Foot Sativa. Honestly, I have never listened to them aside from this one track. I reckon they're wanky and try-hard, but then again I don't have a very high opinion of grown men belching into microphones. Maybe some Death-type metal fans can get into it, but I'm strictly against it. I chose this track at random I'm not sure if it's one of their better ones or not.

Moving on...

Okay, the world of New Zealand Hip-Hop, although apparently very strong, has been missed in my little feature here, so I must rectify that. No-one better to do that than Scribe. Cleaned up the Tuis and won a Silver Scroll I think last year. I never thought much of him really, but I'm admittedly a rockhead so my opinions on hip-hop are next to worthless. the video of this trackk strangly enough features the drummer from 8 Foot Sativa, but I think in the track it's obviously electronic drumming. This one was very popular here a while ago. P-Money, a turn-table guy was really the brains behind this one.
I've also included Scribe's "Not Many", because I've always thought it was cool, and features Savage, who's an awesome guy. Would you please give it up for Sava-age!

Lastly...

Oldies. It's hard to know what to pick. Not Split Enz, because I never really liked them. Not Crowded House because all but one were Aussies, (at least Neil Finn, the main man behind Crowded House was the brains and voice of the outfit, is a Kiwi.)
Muttonbirds? Yes! I love Dominion Road. Sure I may sound wussy for saying that, but I really like Dominion Road! It's an awesome song. Always cheers me up. Often sing it at the top of my lungs when driving somewhere, earning strange looks from pedestrians at stop lights.
But what else... well, really I needed to include this:
Bliss by Th' dudes. I mentioned it earlier, except that I mistakenly wrote that it was by The Exponents. I was wrong, I apologise. I always seen to get those two mixed up.
Bliss is the BEST beer-drinking song in the world. The loud drunk-bar/pub vocals, the highly accented verses which seem to suggest drunken-ness and a good time, and the rowdy "YAAA!! YA YA YA YAAA!!"s... this is what drinking a shit-load of beer is all about. A bit dated, but still a classic. With a name like “Bliss” this song couldn’t be about anything but beer.

So without further ado...

8 Foot Sativa - Stolen Life

P-Money feat. Scribe – Stop the Music

Scribe – Not Many (remix)

The Muttonbirds – Dominion Road

Th’ Dudes – Bliss

Edit: Oh shit, I forgot. The Prime Minister would kill me if she found out. The late entry is "Loyal" by Dave Dobbyn. Many Kiwi's consider it our secondary national anthem. Soppy, but at least better than "God Defend New Zealand". Would go under the oldies section - because Dave wrote decent music back them.

Dave Dobbyn - Loyal

Tomorrow: Final.

Last edited by Tyferra (2006-05-30 22:57:07)

Great thing your doin for New Zealand, man why didn't i start collecting earlier.

Enough Beauty Pageants and lolcats, it's time for me to attempt to reintroduce some culture.

For those who remember last year in May I created a New Zealand music month featurette showcasing fifteen or so unheard acts from my country. Well, it's May again so I'm doing it again. Unfortunately since my CD collection is far from admirable and the increase in fucking copyright protection, (thank you very much Op Shop,) I have been forced to rely on other ways of uploading the songs here, (last year I simply ripped them and put them on Putfile.) YouTube, MySpace and anything else I can use when I find myself with no way to get a CD quality recording, which will unfortunately be most of the time.

I was thinking of flagging it this year, but then I watched a "documentary" by Wellington duo "Flight of the Conchords" at the south by southwest music festival who interviewed some Texan dude who stated "I didn't think New Zealand had the capabilities of having bands." So to try and cut through the ignorance I have indeed decided to do a follow-up to my thread of last year. I'm not sure I can last the whole month as I'm busier than last year, if any of the regular-ish Kiwi members here, (Tuatara Dude, 101 InvaderZim, Pubic,) want to give me a hand It'd be cool, (if not that's fine too,) but hey, I'll do my best. As well as introducing new artists I will also review artists I included last time, adding new stuff or looking at them from a different angle. Whatever.

Like last year I will be trying to include as many genres as possible, but honestly guys, we're off the mainstream radar here so if you're a "METAL AND ONLY METAL RULES" or "THE HIP-HOP SCENE IS WHERE IT'S AT" than his thread is not for you. Come to think of it that's probably where most of you are. Try to widen your horizons anyway. My basic aim anyway is to introduce you to music you've never heard before, and WILL never hear if not for my 'intervention'. The only thing that really links the tracks I plan to put up is that they're all from this twisted corner of the world known as New Zealand.

So, if I haven't turned you off already I'll offer a couple of reruns from last year to start us off. Shihad as always are my favourite band, I've been trying to convert people for years. Some of you have already heard this, but to those who have not I suggest you do so. This was from the "Pacifier" years of Shihad when they lost their identity and name trying to get into the American market, (Shihad sounded too much like 'Jihad' so "Pacifier" they became - not so any more.) So yeah, this track is pretty mainstream hard rock style, but it's still awesome.

Shihad - Run

Autozamm hasn't done much in the last year, I did attend a gig last time the were touring and it was very good. Regardless of inactivity this is a great garage/bogan rock track, fast, upbeat, loud etc.

Autozamm - You Don't Know Me

Play Loud.

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May 2nd/3rd - The Tutts

The 2006 New Zealand Music Month thread.

You didnt cover enough in V.1? My head hurts already. In a good way.

Fly My Pretties

This is an interesting group. It's not really a band as such, more a group of Wellington, (capital city,) musicians who get together and play live gigs every now and then. Their style is hard to pin down, bits of jazz, bits of rock, bits of roots, bits of... well, everything. It's headed, (more or less,) by a bloke named Barnaby Weir, probably most well known for his work with Wellington dub/roots group "The Black Seeds". The group changes quite a bit, but it's fair to say that they are all geniuses.

This track is called "Foresight" and is probably my favourite. It's wonderful Jazz, incredibly mellow, you can literally melt into the sound, it's bloody marvelous. Thankfully I have uploaded an album-quality mp3 as only this music deserves. It's live of course as all FMP recordings are and it's absolutely fantastic. If you have any musical taste at all you'll like this. If of course you can't stand anything other than screaming electrics and rapid drum beats, than still listen to it. It'll expand your horizons just a little bit. Make sure you have it up loud enough to fill the room you're in. Just enjoy it as good music deserves to be enjoyed.

Everyone should hear this.

Fly My Pretties - Foresight
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May 6th/7th - Opshop

*opens LimeWire*

Nice thread Ty, I do like the sound of Foresight.

Keep it coming!

Great stuff so far, I especially liked the Foresight song.