Waiheke Musicians to Play LIVE ON THE BEACH

MEDIA RELEASE 28 APRIL 2006

Waiheke radio station The Beach 99.4fm will mark NZ Music Month with a series of live broadcasts by local musicians. Island artists will be playing original material and classic kiwi covers each Sunday evening during May. The performances will be broadcast live at 6pm on Counting the Beat, the stations specialist NZ music show.

This will be the fourth year the popular Live on The Beach series has run. Counting the Beat host Chris Walker said, “Waiheke Islanders love to hear and support local music. The Beach is pleased to support local musicians and give everyone the opportunity to hear them”.

Live on The Beach kicks off on Sunday May 7 with one of the islands most accomplished musicians, Katy Soljak. She will be playing new material and pulling out a surprise kiwi cover. Other acts this year include Katy Soljak, teenage singer/songwriter Genevieve Cohen, hip-hop duo Charlie Brown and Billy Fluid, and local songstresses Lou and Ange.

Christchurch: City That Shines

This week I spent some time in Christchurch so I've decided that this weeks Counting the Beat show will focus on the pearl of the Canterbury Plains. The show is an A to Zed of Christchurch music. This post is an online accompaniment featuring some of my favourite Christchurch bands, labels and record shops.

Loves Ugly Children: I loved this band. Noisy guitars, great pop melodies and a fantastic live show. There is an excellent band biography at thebigcity.co.nz. I have to admit to having had a bit of a crush on bass player Floss back in the day. That's a photo of the band to the left. The title of this post, City That Shines, is the title of a LUC song from their Cold Water Surf EP.


The Gordons: The greatest band in New Zealand history? Flying Nun have a bio and release information.

Galaxy Records: This is, in my humble opinion, one of the top record shops in the land. For indie/alternative it is No. 1. Want the latest Dead C album, or a 7" single by Napier guitar soundscape heroes Jakob? Then Galaxy is the shop for you. They don't have a website but you can find them at 227 High St, Christchurch. Ph. 379 8852. Email: galaxyrecords@actrix.gen.nz

Failsafe Records: This label is currently releasing a deluge of great Christchurch music from the eighties and nineties. Check out their download page. You can get songs by several bands featuring on this weeks show; Loves Ugly Children, Pop Mechanix, Pumpkinhead. Plus I recommend you have a listen to some great bands I didn't have time for; Children's Hour, YFC, and Substandard. Buy some of their releases.

The Undercurrents: A contemporary Christchurch band with a classic NZ indie sound. They have released three singles and an EP that are incredibly hard to find. Check out their MySpace site or download some tracks here.

You can also buy some great Christchurch compilations. Failsafe Records have a great collection called Accident Compilation, or check out Christchurch: The Music.

Counting the Beat - NZ music every Sunday 6 - 7pm

NZ Music Month on The Beach

NZ Music Month is coming up soon. Once again we will be hosting our fantastic Live on The Beach series. Each Sunday during May Counting the Beat, our specialist NZ music show, will feature a live performance by a local Waiheke musician. Each act performs some of their own material and a classic kiwi cover. This year will be series number four! I first started my show on the station in April 2003 and jumped straight into the live series. That first year we even organised a free concert in the Artworks courtyard right outside the station. Ten local acts in five hours with a budget of $60.

This year I am looking to push the technical limits of our studio, currently held together with sticky tape and string, by hosting some full band set-ups, rather than just the solo and duo acts of past years. One thing that will stay the same is the emphasis on promoting teenage and young musicians. The photo is of 11 year old Ben Kara performing as aprt of the series last year. Ben will be playing at the Waiheke Community Library this May as part of the Auckland City Library NZ Music Month programme.

If you are interested in performing on Live on The Beach, or can help with equipment please post a comment with some contact details.

Live on The Beach kicks off on Sunday May 7 at 6pm. Listen in on the web. The link is on the right of this post.

Country Mike appears on Contrast Podcast #3

Yeaaah haaa!!!... yea right.

Country Mike's no straw chewing farmer type line dancing away his friday nights doing the bootscootin' boogie, forget that - I'm more of the high-tech redneck type. Lately i've been listening to the Contrast Podcast - the idea is pretty simple: a theme is set and bloggers and podcasters from all over the world are invited to send in one song + a minute or so of banter. The last theme was "the perfect 3 minutes" and your's truly, Country Mike, sent in a fine little bluegrass number by a band called Jim and Jenny and Pinetops called "My Grey and Fading Dreams" which came in at exactly 3 minutes. Mine is about 52 minutes into the podcast, but there's a lot of interesting stuff on this podcast including an 11 year old Bjork singing a beatles cover and a fine track by Sparklehorse who have put music to a William Blake poem called "London". There's a few more interesting bits in between. The great thing about listening to podcasts is you can fast-forward - it's like Tivo for radio. Speaking of podcasts we've got a few ourselves at Beach Radio - there's a couple listed here on the right. I've listened to the Counting the Beat one which is good - covers NZ Surf Music and an interview with a guy from the Boxcar Guitars who released on of my favourite CDs of last year.

DJ Simon - The Mix and Mash Radio Show - 8th April 2006

Here's a few standout tracks from this weeks show.

The Doors - Hello I love you (Adam Freeland remix)

Another Rock bootleg? Well.... actually no, it's not. The Doors' management personally requested Adam Freeland to remix this track. A daunting task perhaps, but when digging through the multitracks in The Doors archive he discovered a whole section of Morrison's vocals that have never been heard before. The original had a fade-out ending, but the multitracks revealed a whole heap of screaming Jim.

Oasis Wonderwall v. LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations: A top Aggro1 Bootleg. Kinda miss the James Murphy vocal on it though.

Midfield General - You Take: Love this outfit. I somehow missed out first time round on Midfield General's Generalisation CD released in June 2000 but it stands the test of time six years on. All tracks are a winner. Look out for Noel Fielding AKA vince Noir from 'The Mighty Boosh' fame on the track 'Midfielding'.

Hot Chip - Over and over: A current Electronica / Powerpop favourite from this years hot new band on DFA records. This track has been huge worldwide and they're much in demand for remixes at the moment too and have recently have remixed Goldfrapp, Gorillaz and a brilliant reworking of The Go! Team's Ladyflash. Go to http://www.myspace.com/hotchip for more info.

Coldplay - Talk (Thin white duke remix) - Released and deleted in a day. The Thin white Duke (AKA Les Rythm Digitales, Jaque le Cont, Man with Guitar) recently notable for being the guy who produced Madonna's latest acclaimed album Confession's on a Dancefloor pulls another top remix out of the bag. Makes Coldpaly sound better than they deserve!!

Prince- Pussy Control - Hmm, a return to form from the man formerly know as 'Squiggle? Jury's still out!

J Dangermouse and Cee-Lo are Gnarls Barkley - Crazy: A massive hit for Dangermouse the man responsible for cult Bootleg album 'The Grey album' and producing Gorillaz 'Demon Days' creates an internet buzz with this track and it becomes a huge worldwide success. Seemed someone believed the hype!

The Go! Team - Ladyflash: Standout track from Thunder, lightning, strike! Some great remixes of this kicking around too.

Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat: Crackin' track from the Clash soundalikes from Staines. Kinda missed their debut CD Stars of CCTV when it first came out in the middle of last year but it just can't be ignored. Hard-Fi are huge in the UK at the moment, this track and 'Hard to beat' and are the standouts.

Goldfrap - Slide In (DFA Remix): Brilliant! All 15 glorious minutes of it!

Revlon 9 - Walking Machine (Simian Mobile Disco Mix)

Lifelike & kris menace - Discopolis

Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To (Max Tundra Remix) : All glitch and Van Halen (Jump) keyboards! It can't be ignored!

More next week

Watch This Space ... we're onto it.

Our Schedule

Saturday
9am - 12pm Island Life (Local events, people and issues) with Chris, Dione, Denise, or Pania.
12pm -2pm The Remix with DJ Simon
4pm - 8pm Sunset Cafe with Laurie

Sunday
8am - 10am Mr Fox's Childrens Radio Show
12am-12pm People and Places with Eileen
6pm - 7pm Counting the Beat - New Zealand Music with Chris
7pm - late The Dirty ol' Blues Show with Kippa

Monday
7am-10am The Breakfast Show - Barry J with News and Weather
10am - 11am Ask the Lawyer with Mathew Tetley-Jones
8pm-10pm Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown

Tuesday
7am-10am The Breakfast Show - Barry J with News and Weather
5pm - 7pm Drive Show with Kippa
9pm - 11pm The Planet L Radio Show

Wednesday
7am-10am The Breakfast Show - Barry J with News and Weather
5pm - 7pm The Drive Show with Patrice and Anne
7pm - 9pm Sticky Fingers with Angelica Vixen

Thursday
7am-10am The Breakfast Show - Barry J with News and Weather
5pm - 7pm The Drive Show with San Diego
7pm - 9pm The Realms of Riddum with Dave T

Friday

Our Presenters

Barry J (AKA Dr Rock)
The Breakfast Show
The legend that is Barry J is Beach Radio’s flagship DJ and does the breakfast show each morning on the Beach. Well, put it this way... he gets up early and sits behind the decks but he doesn’t have the bubbly personality a breakfast host is supposed to have and he's no good at telling jokes either! Barry J's show is the breakfast show you have when you're not really having a breakfast show. That said he does play some pretty decent music you definitely won't hear anywhere else as well as doing a good impression of a one armed paperhanger in a gale of wind running between the music desk and the news-desk looking for the important, the relevant and the offbeat news of the day. Who the f*ck wants to be jolly in the morning anyway?Listen in: Monday - Thursday 7am - 10am

DJ Simon
The REMIX
Simon's celebrated Saturday lunchtime Show 'The Remix' is stuffed full of all the best of the new and recent significant releases from the UK , the States and New Zealand. Simon is also a self-confessed 'Bootleg' fanatic and you'll hear the cream of all recent remixes and Mash-ups all mixed into a beautiful 2 hour set!


Chris
Counting the Beat - The New Zealand Music Show
Chris brings you the very best of New Zealand music, old and new. Kiwi music news, feature albums, interviews, new releases and classics. From the mainstream to the very strange indeed. Counting the Beat is your home-grown music one-stop-shop. Listen in: Sunday’s 6-7pm and occasional Saturday's 9am -12pm




Country Mike
Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown
Puttin' the ass back in bluegrass and the ho back in hoedown, Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown whoops the Monday night blues back into the dirty bottle they came from! Scraping at the edges of Americana and stumbling his way across insurgent country to militant honky-tonk, murder ballads and other backwater jug band music, Country Mike chews through an eclectic and dangerous mix of diesel fumes, lost loves and lit matches. Listen in: Monday 8 - 10pm More Country Mike, here: http://countrymike.blogspot.com

Kippa
The Dirty ol' Blues Show & Tuesday Drive
Kippa is the islands' bluesman. Gigging across the island you'll also find him on Beach Radio every Sunday evening playing the best in blues from the original pioneers from the likes of Robert Johnson to the contemporary masters such as Eric Clapton. Listen in: Sunday 7-late and on Tuesday Drive 5 - 7pm


Laurie
Out to Lunch and The Sunset Cafe
As the afternoon strolls into the evening join Laurie for a drink and a smoke at the Sunset Cafe. You'll find an eclectic mix of scrumptious sounds and tantalising tracks, as varied as the colours of the sunset, to slide you gently into your Saturday night. Sexy slow grooves through to dynamic dance and things that make you go hmmmm! Rich, full bodied and very smooth. Listen in: Saturday 4 - 8pm and Friday 12 - 5pm

Planet El
The Planet L Radio Show

Tune in, skin up and nod off to the show that doesn't so much open the doors of perception as take them off their hinges to be used for firewood. This show provides the soundtrack to the music inside your head - Cool acoustic astral space jams,monged out dub, tripped out beats,soulful torch songs, heart-breaking Americana and some genuinely weird vibes that you'll not hear anywhere else. It shouldn't work but it kinda does (except whenit doesn't). The Planet L Radio Show - The sound of yourself listening. Listen in: Tuesday 10-12pm More about Planet L @ http://eledir.multiply.com

Dave T
Realms of Riddum

A journey into the realms of riddum a global musical mix of funk, reggae and hip hop jazz inspired soul music from NZ and around the world. The show features guest DJ's and MC's interviews and local news and views brought to you by Fahrenheit 911.

Thursday 7-9.

DJ Brenkski
Brenski Beats

Tune in to Ms DJ Brenski and let the music speak for itself. There's always a deep mix of sounds with soul, freedom and peace, one world and one language - Music! xx

Friday 8pm - late

Eileen

People and Places

Eileen presents Waiheke's Sunday morning current affairs show covering a wide range of topics from Community news and events, local politics, the arts and health. In between interviews Eileen plays a wide range of easy listening Sunday morning music from around the globe.

Listen in: Sunday 10 - 12am

Angelica Vixen (aka Bianca)

Sticky fingers

Bianca's Sticky Fingers show is a delicious blend of music from New Zealand and offshore. Specializing in Electronica, Drum and Bass as well as some seriously sexy laid back grooves. Sure to tickle your fancy and get you grooving. Watch out; cause you will get easily addicted to this finger licking good show!

Listen in: Wednesday 7- 9pm

Scott E Mathew Tetley-Jones Pania Denise Sireal San Diego ... still to come!