Waiheke Community Radio

New Station ... New Site

2008-02-24T21:07:00.003+13:00

Waiheke Radio took a significant step forward this week when Auckland City Council agreed to offer a community lease on a studio in the Artworks complex to Waiheke Community Radio Trust. It’s taken a while to pull this all together and we are really appreciative of the support we received from the Hauraki Gulf councillor, Denise Roche and the members of the Waiheke Community Board. We hope to move into our premises soon. A key feature of the studio will be a production suite that can be used to record a wide variety of programmes by individuals and groups from the community. If you are interested in making, or contributing to, a show please contact us. If you would like to be informed of what is happening with Waiheke Radio join our mailing list.

We are also going to be discontinuing blogging from this page and have moved most of these posts over to http://www.waihekeradio.org.nz. So please change your bookmarks and keep in touch on our new site.

Podcasts Launched

2007-11-19T16:32:00.000+13:00

Two Waiheke Radio stalwarts, Country Mike and Chris from Counting The Beat, have launched podcasts so now you can get a regular dose of their musical choices and comments.

Son of Country Mike continues where the Hauraki Hoedown radio show left off, with a focus on alt-country, new weird america and americana. You can read all about at Casa De Country Mike.

Counting The Beat is all kiwi, showcasing an eclectic mix of NZ Music. Recent episodes feature new releases, kiwi covers, and our very own awards show, The Alternatuis.

The downloadable installments of Son of Country Mike and Counting The Beat are hosted at BigPod. You can download show by show or sign up to BigPod and subscribe, and the shows will be delivered right to you by the wonder that is RSS.

For your convenience, the RSS feeds are posted in the sidebar, so you can subscribe right here. If you haven't subscribed to a podcast before you can check out this tutorial . It shows you how to subscribe with iTunes or any other podcasting software.

We hope you enjoy the shows.

The 2nd Annual Alternatuis

2007-10-26T22:48:00.000+13:00

By now you'll know who the winners were of the 2007 NZ Music Awards, The Tuis. Congratulations to The Mint Chicks who picked up the awards for Best Group, Best Album and Best Rock Album. Of course, we named The Mint Chicks best group last year - it's great that the rest of the music industry is finally paying attention to what we say. Now that the mainstream awards are out of the way it's time for the fame and the glory, the triumph and the tears that mark the accolades that really count - proudly brought to you by Counting The Beat and The Beach - The Alternatuis 2007. (Download or stream the 2007 Alternatuis radio broadcast or play the winning songs in the player at the end of this post).

Launched in 2006, The Alternatuis differ from other awards in two ways - firstly they are a way of recognising great New Zealand artists and songs that aren't getting the recognition they deserve, secondly there is no pretence of democracy or objectivity in this show. You get an award because we like what you do - any dispute with the judges decision will be treated with disdain (but we would love to hear your comments). So, drum roll please,

onto the awards.

Single of the Year
A tough choice this year with lots of bands putting out songs that were around three minutes long, were catchy as hell and, most importantly, if you heard them on a juke box at the pub, they'd make you feel like jumping. Contenders were Surf City - Headin' Inside, The Situations - Hey Sister, and Pine - Hosanna, all songs that you should check out and buy. But at the end of the day there can only be one winner (we're not afraid of cliches around here, oh no). Alternatui for Single of the Year goes to Collapsing Cities for No Plans. It was the "weee -ooo"s that clinched it in the end.

Best Female Artist(s)
Last year there was a slew of great albums from solo female artists such as Flip Grater and Reb Fountain. This year, not so many, but still a couple of standouts. We're really quite taken with the teenage trio The Teacups , who, while they can be a little more enthusiastic than accomplished, are still one to watch. An outfit that are on top of their craft is Ragamuffin Children, two women from Christchurch who have put out a lovely album of folky tunes entitled Werecat Lullabies. They take out the Alternatui for Best Female Artist of 2007.

Best Male Solo Artist
Who's your favourite one-man band multi-instrumentalist psych noise outfit? Well ours is Pumice, the pseudonym of Stefan Neville. With his latest album Pebbles, Stefan has produced probably his most accessible work to date. The album has also won considerable international acclaim with one critic even declaring it amongst his albums of the decade. There is an on-line comic to accompany the album here.

Best Rock Album
The Demiwhores are fronted by Ed Gains, a prolific artist who exhibits a true DIY spirit, home recording and self releasing more than half a dozen albums. To be honest much of his back catalogue could have done with some prudent editing but this self titled band collection is great. We love the crunchy guitar sound and the "rock and roll is the devil's music" attitude but the main thing is that the songs are good - there's more going on than you pick up on the first listen. Take Coffin Car, the albums catchiest tune, a real toe tapper with a sing-along chorus, but take a listen to the lyrics and you realise it's about a driver of a crashed car watching his friends die around him. Also recommended is an acoustic set The Demiwhores recorded for National Radio. The songs translate well to a different interpretation, a true test of songcraft.

Breakthrough Act of the Year
Is 2007 the year roots music broke? A number of very promising nu folk acts such as The Teacups, Needles and Bees and Bear Cat have emerged in the last 12 months. The roots revival also encompasses country and blues influences. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to catch a live performance by a six piece outfit featuring pedal steel and fiddle, going by the unlikely name of The Vietnam War. They somehow meld hokeyness with a noughties indie sensibility. That night, admittedly a little drunk, I declared them my new favourite band. That still stands - The Vietnam War win the Alternatui for Breakthrough Act of the Year.

Instrumental Actof the Year
We're fond of instrumentals on Counting the Beat. In fact, some time age we did a special called Lost For Words. We've only heard two tracks by An Emerald City, both instrumentals that develop and then soar, in a manner not dissimilar to the great Australian band, The Dirty Three. But on the strength of Qing Song and A Thousand Stars At Night we have no hesitancy in awarding An Emerald City the Alternatui for Best Instrumental of 2007.

Album of the Year and Band of the Year
The Whipping Cats have been a revelation in the past year, a faultless EP, a cracking album and a hugely energetic live show. They draw on the blues, but given their age it's hard to tell if their influences are early Stones or the White Stripes. They are a three piece, playing drums, guitar, and harmonica with organ augmenting the sound on the recent album as well. The 4 track EP, The Gruesome Numbers is a great starting point for anyone wanting to hear this band, but the album, The Last Ditch Dance really delivers the goods. It has songs with the immediacy and pace of the EP, such as Lightning Savage Children, but also a broader range of tracks that reveal their appeal with repeated listens. Keep your eyes on these guys - they well deserve their two Alternatuis, but remember - when they win Best Band at the Tuis - that we championed them first.

Homegrown
And finally, honourable mention to Clench, now, sadly, defunct. Over recent months this foot-to-the-floor down and dirty rock 'n' roll outfit has brought a breath of fresh air to the Waiheke live scene, for so long dominated by solo bluesman. They weren't around for long but they'll be missed - Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am.

Congratulations to all of the artists who have picked up awards. While an Alternatui doesn't come with cash or prizes it is a true indication that we value and appreciate the music you are creating. Thank you from Counting the Beat and The Beach.

Sad Demise of THE BEACH

2007-10-24T23:12:00.000+13:00

The seventh anniversary of this once wonderful little radio station, has passed earlier this month, without any fanfare this time round. There's more sadness now than there has ever been in these past 7yrs, and looking back now it is obvious that the demise of this unique little soundbyte in the Sth Pacific actually started 3yrs back when the new owner took control......
At that time there were some of the then current volunteer announcers that knew of this new owner from thirty years earlier. Because back then he became the face of music television in NZ, on a show called Radio With Pictures, and accordingly picked up the title of Dr ROCK from this stint in front of the camera.
Coming back to 2007 and this same person has all but destroyed The Beach in the short space of 3yrs of control, he came with an hidden agenda, and it has wreaked havoc.
One could dive into all sort of lurid details here but there's really no point in digging up the dirt on a garden that has lain fallow for far too long. All you supporters of The Beach over these past years only need to know that The Beach as it has been will no longer be. It's been destroyed by a one time hero of the music industry, who went to sleep in the early 80's and just like Rumplestiltskin forgot to wake up!
The Beachradio.net website seems to have disappeared into the ether and the radio studio at Artworks is no more, its now based in the back room of a garage in Blackpool, and in case you didn't know it's not been streaming on the net since May 18th 2005.
A classic case of the crew rebelling against their Captain Bourbonne has evolved and he's been left to sail his ship on to the nearest rocks somewhere around Cape March.
Bon Voyage!

Stunned Mullet: Silver Scrolls Special Available to Download

2007-09-25T23:01:00.000+12:00

Last week the 2007 Silver Scroll Awards were held. You've probably all heard by now that the winner was Brooke Fraser for her song Albertine. Not what we here at The Beach would have chosen, but there you go.

The awards themselves are a pretty glamourous affair but one of the nice features is that almost everyone there is actually a musician, rather than an industry hack. That's because the Silver Scrolls are the awards of a songwriters and performers organisation, APRA. In fact the winning song is voted by the members of APRA, the songwriters themselves.

A special feature of the award show is the performance of the five nominated songs by other musical artists. The idea behind this is that if the song is really good it should stand up to different interpretations, and not be completely bound with its original form and performance.

Also at this years awards there was the inaugural induction into the NZ Music Hall of Fame. While he might not have the cool factor of, say, Shane Carter, or the gravitas of Don McGlashan, the inductee, Jordan Luck, (pictured) has written songs, pop songs, that have endured and become part of the social fabric of our country. The announcement took many by surprise, not least of all Jordan, who described himself as a 'stunned mullet'. However, most felt the accolade was truly deserved.

You can hear interviews with the nominees, the performances of the nominated songs from the award ceremony and excerpts from the awards show (including a classic quote from Helen Clark) in the Counting The Beat Silver Scrolls Special available for streaming or download.

Dylan, Mark Ronson, Simon, El. Who could possibly ask for more?

2007-09-18T21:31:00.000+12:00

Go to http://www.dylanmessaging.com/index.html to check out the new Mark Ronson remix of Dylan's 'Most likely you go your way (and I'll go mine)' - Bloomin' marvelous!!! Almost makes you want to go out and buy the new Dylan album doesn't it!!! Not quite tho eh!! ;-)

This Year's Best Record: Yeah Right

2007-09-17T21:40:00.000+12:00

The nominees for the NZ Music Awards, best known as The Tuis, have been announced and they're not a bad bunch. And while Hayley Westenra is amongst those nominated there are several acts that are favourites of us here at The Beach who also get the nod. Liam Finn is up for breakthrough artist and single of the year for Second Chance, The Tutts K is also in the single of the year category while (imagine trumpet fanfare here) The Mint Chicks are nominated for four awards - Album of the year, Best Group, Rock Album of the year and Best Album Cover Art.

It's at this point that we get to jump around thumbing out nose at the organisers of the The Tuis, RIANZ, shouting "We knew them before they were big", "told you so" etc, etc. That's because it was around this time last year that we first declared the Mint Chicks brilliance here on the Beach Radio Blog. Then in October, in the inaugural Alternatuis, we gave them the Best Group award, stating

"The Mint Chicks are the stand out group of the year by far. Their album Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! is superb. These guys write pop songs full of oddball structures and tangential ideas. Live, they go off like the Energiser bunny. As previously heralded here on the blog the Mint Chicks are currently the best band in the land."

You can download a Counting The Beat awards special here (Counting The Beat 16 /09 / 07). The show looks at the upcoming Silver Scrolls, the Tui nominees and revisits the 2006 Alternatui winners.

The remix playlist - 8 Sept 07

2007-09-14T21:45:00.000+12:00

...and rather fine it was too!!!

The Chems are still making a mark with 'We are the night' both as an album and a track, I can't stop playing The Gossip 'Listen up' track and this latest (of many) splendid remixes is plure pleasure!!!

More of the same from the Go! Team (which has to be a good thing in anybody's book with their new single 'Grip Like A Vice' and Mark Ronson's re-work of the Kaiser Chiefs single, Oh my god , is (9 months into the year) rapidly heading into my single of the year (closely followed by - New Young Pony Club - The Bomb) but, ofcourse this can always change in an instance!

I played an excellent remix of the LCD Soundsystem's - Us vs Them from Go Home Productions who recently decided to hang up his booties!!! Pervauer of many a quality remix and mashup since 2003 he's decided enough's enough after recieving (justifiably) poor reviews of his recent CD release!!!

Here are the reviews:

"Your sister will love it" IDJ
"Utter Rubish" (4 out of 5) DJ Mag
"Vidler's still a genius but I can't help preferring it when he was
giving away knocked off gear" Word Mag.

and my personal favourite "If You'd been around in 1972 and someone had promised to
hand stitch you a pair of bell-bottoms, then delivered them in 1977,
how would you feel?" Time Out - Priceless!!

Truth is he was way too late with this release and it clearly was aimed, as the review said, 'at your sister' but none-the-less he has produced some excellent work over the years which, bless him, he is now making available to download for free. His entire back catelogue!!! Go to the website above!!

Look out soon on this blog for mp3s of tunes listed on this playlist!!! Just as soon as Country Mike gets his shit together with the webserver!!!! ;-) - Live streaming coming soon to an internet near you!!!

Hour 1 Part 1 -19:46

00:00 Chemical Brothers - We are the night
05:23 The Gossip - (ATOC remix) [sting]
12:28 Mark Ronson ft Lily allen - Oh my god (kaiser chiefs cover)
15:31 Groove Armada - Song 4 mutya (out of control)
19:21 The Go! Team - Grip Like A Vice

Hour 1 part 3 - 21:40

00:00 Tom Middleton - Shinkansen
06:54 LCD Soundsystem - Us vs Them (Go Home Productions Remix) [Sting]
12:12 New Young Pony Club - The Bomb
16:10 TeddieBears - yours to keep ft annie

Hour 2 part 1 - 24:11

00:14 Dan le sac vs scroobius pip - Thou shalt always kill
05:47 Klaxons - Not Over Yet
08:52 M.I.A - Paper planes [Sting]
12:16 Amy Winehouse - Tears dry on their own
15:18 Kate Nash - Foundations
19:06 Unkle - burn my shadow

Hour 2 part 3 - 18:30

00:00 Smith n hack - falling star
05:41 Hard Fi - Suburban Knights (Angello & Ingrosso Remix)
11:56 The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance (Crookers Wow Mix)

Local People, Local Knowledge

2007-09-10T22:12:00.000+12:00

Waihekepedia is a new initiative of a group of islanders who have set up a wiki that aims to be the "encyclopedia about Waiheke". Like that other wiki you've probably heard of the idea is for the content to be user generated. Rather than a site that's trying to sell you accomodation or wine tours or real estate this site aims to collect information on the island from those that live here, with the aim of being an information source, but also a way of telling our stories.

Greg Treadwell is an editorial advisor on the Waihekepedia team. He came into the station to talk to Chris on Island Life. Greg explained something about the genesis of the project (a nice little slice of island life in itself), the aims and objectives, and how it works. We recorded the interview and as well as being able to listen to it here, you can find it on the Waihekepedia site itself. How's that for a piece of cross-platform digital wizardry?

Check out the Beach Radio Waihekepedia page

Waiheke Coastguard: Born To be Wild

2007-09-10T21:24:00.000+12:00

Every Saturday morning on The Beach our current affairs magazine show Island Life takes a look at Waiheke news, events and people. In recent months we have started to talk regularly to some of the volunteers involved with the Waiheke Coastguard. Our chats are usually pretty relaxed; sometimes we'll talk about safety tips, at other times training they are offering, and sometimes they recount rescues they've performed. Those are the best ones. They want "Born to Be Wild" to be their intro theme tune but I figure if you've got to have an early seventies hard rock track "Smoke On The Water' would be better suited.

The coastguard crew and supporters are all volunteers and they work really hard on and off the water to keep boaties on the Hauraki Gulf safe. I asked them once if they ever go fishing when they're out on patrol. They claim they don't but I don't know, wouldn't you?

Last Saturday the crew skipper Robb Henry came in. He talked about a rescue that saw them get a nomination for a coast guard award and about how they need to raise $800, 000 for a new boat that will mean they have better response capability. The Waiheke Coastguard need our support. If you can help out they would love to hear from you - email judypetercox@clear.net.nz

Long time no blog

2007-09-06T21:53:00.000+12:00

Yeah I know, it's been a while but what with moving house, an overseas trip to the UK for three and half weeks and conceiving twins it's all been a bit hectic!!!

Anyways the show will be back with a vengance soon! Look out for a new show coming soon featuring ofcourse the latest significant releases with an added twist!!!

And I think we're streaming now too!! Check out this blog for an update on the great streaming debate coming soon and a big up to Brent and Chris for keeping the blog fresh of late!! I promise to do my best - Dib dib dib.etc...

Anyways to the blog in hand. As I mentioned earlier, I was back in the UK last month catching up with family and friends!!! One particular bunch of mates formed a covers band, Snoggin' the Dog (affectionately know as the STDs) a couple of years back and, bless 'em, they organised a gig for my return and subsequently asked me to sing a tune..... This was my choice!!!

Et voila...

P.S Please note raptuous applause and whooping at the end of the track!!! :-)

City Scenes

2007-08-31T23:01:00.001+12:00

One of my favourite tracks at the moment is City Lights by The Vietnam War. That got me thinking about another fantastic song, City Scenes by The Features . And before I knew it a theme show was born.

This week Counting the Beat will feature New Zealand songs that either have City in the title or are by bands with City in their name. It's a silly idea I know, but someone had to do it.

To whet your appetite I've gathered together a few videos including Vietnam War performing City Lights live. Just scroll over the pictures to see which videos are featured.

Also included in the show are The Nudie Suits, Loves Ugly Children, Lucid 3, The Sneaks and more.

By the way, the bass player in The Features was Chris Orange, now a Waiheke resident. Check out a live radio performance on The Beach from Chris recorded earlier this year.

UPDATE: You can download this episode along with other Counting The Beat shows at BigPod.

Silver Scroll Nominees Announced

2007-08-16T14:07:00.000+12:00

Shockwaves were felt throughout the NZ music scene today when it was learnt that neither Don McGlashan nor Dave Dobbyn were amongst the five finalists for the 2007 Silver Scroll Awards. Within living memory it has been common practice for the two to take turn about for top New Zealand music awards, with the occasional concession to the third of the great Kiwi music triumvirate, Neil Finn.

A clearly shaken McGlashan, bathing in a river of tears, was unable to comment, but is said to be counting the cost of a now unnecessary mantle piece extension. Dobbyn, meanwhile, has put away the welcome mat at his comfortable Grey Lynn home and may be considering applying to Algeria for refugee status. When asked for his opinion on the matter Neil Finn flew into a rage and could be heard muttering, "It's all that b**** Helen Clark's fault".

New Zealand music fans now face the prospect of having to come to terms with a whole new generation of musical talent receiving acclaim and airplay. Music scene commentator and high profile DJ, Barry Jenkin, made a statement summing up public feeling on the scandal, "Everybody knows there's been no decent new talent since 1984, what are they playing at!"

What do you think? Cast your vote in the Beach radio poll - "Which song should win the 2007 Silver Scroll?" The poll can be found in the sidebar to the right.

Rock on the Rock - Clench

2007-08-08T19:15:00.000+12:00

A few weeks back I went to see Clench at Malones in Surfdale after having missed them a few weeks earlier at the Dirt Track. The show was reviewed by a couple of the local rags who didn't really seem to know what to make of them ... which was a good sign in my book. A couple of the Clench crew are (or were) DJs on the station so supporting them and seeing whether Waiheke can actually rock was on the cards for the night. Rock bands on 'the Rock' are few and far between; we seem to attract more of the singer/songwriter types than you'd ever really want to meet and I must admit that I went down without too many expectations, just to have a few beers say hello to some mates, listen to some music then walk home. Surprise! First song hooked me right away and reeled me in for the rest of the night - Clench were the real deal. Original numbers, riffs!... good ones too, rock'n'roll with an attitude and some real grit to it had landed in Malones of all places. I've been thinking about the band and what a great show they put on that night ever since so if you want to see some fine local rock head on down to Malones again this Saturday. I'm going to try to get some tracks by Clench on the site as soon as possible so check back. See you on Saturday.

UPDATE

Listen to Clench's Live set on bFM here...

What The Folk!

2007-07-29T15:57:00.000+12:00

Bill Whall is a Waiheke Island folk muso. On Saturday 28 July he popped in to Island Life to have a chat about a monthly Waiheke Folk Club jam night he's starting up. Club night is the first Wednesday of each month, starting August 1. The jam will be held at the Sports Club, down on the Causeway, staring at 7pm. Bill explained that the format of the evening will be open mic from 7pm through to about 8.30 - 9.00. After that there will be a feature act, this coming month it's a bluegass outfit called Shotgun from the Titirangi Folk Club featuring former islander, Alan Lewis. The evening will finish with a jam. Whether you want to play, or just listen, all are welcome for a modest charge ($4 for members, $6 for non-members). The bar and kitchen will be open and the music will be great.

Bill brought in his banjo and played a couple of numbers. He picked up quite an audience from those passing through the artworks courtyard. Take a listen on the player below or visit the Internet Archive for downloads.

For Your Listening Pleasure

2007-07-25T13:09:00.000+12:00

Last week we broadcast a special on songs named after New Zealand place names. The audio for this show is now available. Either click on the flash player here or visit the Internet Archive for a range of download and streaming options. We're sure you'll enjoy this show, the audio for last years Place Names Special has become one of our most popular downloads.

Also, keep an eye open for an upcoming announcement of weekly podcasting of some the radio shows here on The Beach 99.4fm.

Out with the Old, in with the New(old)

2007-07-21T08:01:00.000+12:00

Well the big news last week was the storm which ravaged Waiheke with 100+ km winds and rain, knocking down trees and casting most of the island into darkness for varying amounts of time. One of the casualties of this wrath of nature was the old Beach Radio broadcasting desk which got fried by an electrical spike or some such anomoly when the power eventually did come back on. Like most things in this station (including some of the DJs) that old desk was held together by chewing gum and spit but it did the job and its departure will be met with a mixture of sadness and relief. The good news is that due to an earlier donation by another island resident we had a backup desk ready to go. The new-old desk, pictured above, while not quite of the same caliber as the old desk and not technically a broadcast desk seems to be humming along quite nicely. We've chucked a bit of #8 wire into it plus a bit of the old Kiwi DIY ingenuity and the needles are hopefully bipping along nicely bringing the island the high caliber of volunteer radio that they've come to expect.

Viva la new/old desk!

I've Been Everywhere AND BACK!

2007-07-17T22:45:00.000+12:00

A wide range of Download and Streaming options of this show are available at the Internet Archive

The idea behind this show (and post) is to focus on musicians who are celebrating or commenting on their country through their songs. Each song featured is named after a NZ town or location. As you'll see and hear, there is a diverse bunch, from traditional country to indie pop/rock. I have run a previous special of the same sort. Back then I traversed the country from North to South so this time I figured I better head bottom up. Putting the special together has given me the opportunity to play with a couple of new internet toys so below you'll find a map, click on the markers to get track info, links and even the odd download. And underneath the map a slide show to give you something to look at as you listen to the show. After all, we all love seeing people's holiday slides don't we.

Repost: I've Been Everywhere

2007-06-24T13:19:00.001+12:00

About a year ago I ran a Counting The Beat special on songs that were named after New Zealand towns and locations. I recorded the show but a few technical problems meant the sound wasn't great. I've finally had a bit of a tinker and got it to a passable standard so I decided it was time to re-run the posting that accompanied the show, but this time you can listen too! This is a show I'm particularly proud of, I hope you like it. Working on this has also prompted me to turn my attention to a sequel - that should be coming in a few weeks. Listen into the show at 6pm on Sundays for details. You can listen to a stream of the place name special on the player below or download it from our friends at the Internet Archive.

Here is the long promised place name special. The deal is that all songs on the show have a New Zealand place name as their title. As you may imagine the result is an eclectic array of musical styles, from folk, to electronica, to punk and more. This post highlights a few of the artists, songs and locations featured.

Auckland Tonight - The Androidss
One of two songs about Auckland comes from The Androidss (sic), a band that actually hail from Christchurch. You can read a short bio on the excellent thebigcity site, an essential for your favourites list if you are into alternative kiwi acts.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - Peter Cape

One of the reasons this show took so long to put together was because I had to learn how to say the name of this place. The song is by Peter Cape, a cleric, broadcaster, and folk singer with a very interesting history. Believe it our not the song title is an abbreviation of the actual place name.

Cape Turnagain - The Warratahs and Sam Hunt
Named by Cook on his inaugural visit to these shores, Cape Turnagain became the subject of this fantastic song written by Barry Saunders and Sam Hunt. Here's Barry with the Cape in the background.

Otaki - The Fourmyula
Not much to say about this one. All you need to know is here on another essential kiwi music website.

Wellington - The Mutton Birds
Don McGlashan has a new solo album out called Warm Hand. I haven't heard it yet, but reviews are good. The Mutton Birds still have a site you can check out.

Christchurch (In Cashel St I Wait) - The Dance Exponents
Brilliant, Naming not only the city, but the specific street. Are there any kiwi songs with an actual address? If so, I want to hear about them.

Purakanui - Jetty
One of my favourite places in the world. I was very excited when I discovered someone had recorded a song about this beach on the Otago coast. Incidentally the band Jetty are also named after a place. The band name came about because their practice rooms were on Jetty St, down by the wharf area in Dunedin.

I've Been Everywhere - John Hore
John Hore gave John Denver his name. He later changed his own name to John Grenell. Who knew? More info here.

There you go; a musical journey from North to South. Keep a look out for the sequel.

Give Peace A Chance

2007-06-03T21:50:00.000+12:00

The 8^th of June 2007 is the 20^th anniversary of the passing of legislation to make New Zealand nuclear free. To get a local slant on this historic occasion The Beach 99.4fm invited Waiheke woman Maynie Thompson onto our Island Life magazine show to discuss her involvement in the anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s. (Use the flash player below to hear the interview. To download or for higher quality streams see the link at the end of the post.)

Maynie is an amazing woman. In this interview she discusses the inspiration for her involvement in the anti-nuclear movement and some of her adventures as a front line activist.

Waiheke became a hotbed of activism in the eighties and Maynie and other local women found they had plenty of support from the island community as they took their message of peace to the world. In 1983 she participated in a march to Wellington calling for the New Zealand government to take a stand on the nuclear issue. Enthused by that experience, a year later Maynie visited Britain to join the women’s camp at Greenham Common protesting the deployment of American nuclear missiles on British soil. She wasn’t merely a passive participant in this protest, she was involved in cutting the fence and raiding the Greenham Common military complex.

Two years later Maynie again ventured overseas to participate in the Great Peace March across the United States, walking much of the way from Los Angeles to Washington DC, again calling for peace and an end to the nuclear threat.

Maynie’s activism continued into the 1990’s with her participation in the 1995 Peace Flight to Tahiti. This action was to protest French Nuclear testing on the Pacific atoll Mururoa and to lend support to the indigenous people of Tahiti and other Pacific nations who were in the region were the French chose to carry out their nuclear dirty work.

It was a real pleasure talking with Maynie. She has dedicated many years to the campaign for peace and wanted to emphasise the overwhelming support she had received from the Waiheke community over this time. She justifiably looks back on her involvement in the peace movement with pride.

You can download or stream the interview with Maynie here.

A music track featuring excerpts from Davis Lange’s Oxford Union Debate against Jerry Falwell on the morality of nuclear weapons is available for download here.

It's Pat On The Back Time

2007-05-29T20:57:00.000+12:00

As NZ Music Month comes to an end I heave a (slight) sigh of relief. Presenting the "Live On The Beach" series has its challenges, not least overcoming the technical issues that arise when you're trying to broadcast live music from a studio that could be charitably described as rustic and no-frills. And then there are the musicians. Actually this years line-up gave me no problems at all, but in the past it has been a little like herding cats.

What makes it all worthwhile are the performances, and this year for the first time (causing even more headaches and anxiety) these are posted on the internet for you to download or listen to again. There's a podcast list in the sidebar to the right.

I want to thank all of the musicians - Chris Orange; Ian Simpson; Mamacan; and Rattleshack. Also, thanks to the Gulf news for the great ad, Dave T, Chris, Ian & Andy for the use of gear and the family for putting up with me spending so much time on this.

Series 5 of "Live On The Beach" concluded with Harry Nicklin and Andy Lewis, who together are Rattleshack. Take a listen to their performance here.

And now, as promised in an earlier post, I have a historical "Live On The Beach" post for you. This one's for the obscurists amongst you and has a little back story.

Fatal Jelly Space were a great Auckland band who released one great EP, titled Hole, on Flying Nun in 1990. They were a staunchly feminist outfit and a ferocious (if not somewhat scary) phenomenon live striking fear into the hearts of many.

In the early years of the twenty first century Bob Dylan played the god-awful North Shore Events Centre in Takapuna, Auckland. Ordinarily that wouldn't have grabbed me, but supporting him was none other than Patti Smith. As soon as I heard that I was there. She was better than I can describe here and I went away very happy but that's another story.

Anyway, on the way back into town to catch the last ferry to Waiheke we saw someone hitching we recognised as coming from the island. We picked her up and got chatting and it turned out this fellow Patti Smith fan was Frankie Bodi of Fatal Jelly Space.

In 2003 I was putting together the first series of NZ Music Month live-to-air performances on The Beach and I was trying to put together a line-up. I remembered that late night hitch-hiking encounter and approached Frankie about performing. She agreed, playing a short solo set of originals. To my ears the highlight was one of the tracks from that Hole EP, Miseriah.

Take a listen, Frankie Fatal, Live On The Beach 99.4fm, May 2003

Look out for more "back catalogue" posts in coming weeks. For now, however, I'm looking forward to going in on a Sunday night and just playing CDs

Live From Our Oneroa Studio

2007-05-23T22:01:00.000+12:00

The Beach's NZ Music Month Special continues to roll throughout May. Waiheke musicians playing live in our studio every Sunday at 6pm. Coming up this week is Rattleshack featuring Harry Nicklin and Andy Lewis. I saw these guys play at the library a couple of weeks ago and they sounded great. Harry is a great word smith and his voice and guitar interplay nicely with Andy's mandolin. I'm really looking forward to their performance.

In the meantime here are links to two more of our Live On The Beach performances.

Ian Simpson played a solo set on May 13 while Mamacan played May 20. Mamacan are a four piece featuring Lou Rix (vocals), Ange Munns (guitar, vocal), Liz Ross and Andrea McIntyre (both percussion). Being a four piece meant a real headache for me trying to set up and monitor all those inputs and get it to air. It was a great performance and I hope that the recording does it justice. I need a producer! Any way, both sets are well worth checking out if you didn't catch them live. You can either download or stream from the Internet Archive site.

Also keep an eye out for some historical Live On The Beach posts coming soon. I've got recordings going back over the entire five years the series has run and if I can track down the musicians I'll put up some of the stuff from the first series. Incidentally, when Harry plays next week it will be his second Live On The Beach appearance, he played a Benevolent Evelyns set way back on series one.

Chris - Counting The Beat, Sundays 6pm

DJ Simon - The Remix - May 2007

2007-05-22T19:47:00.000+12:00

Has been a while since I blogged to the (Beach Radio) station site but I'm back with a vengence!! :-) A cracking show this week with some brand spanking new tracks and a couple of old classics to boot!! Great to hear the LCD soundsystems' 'Losing my Edge' again, that song kicked off a whole new listening genre for me personally back in 2002 and as their recent release 'Sound of Silver' proves it was definately the right track to be on!! :-)

Two new tracks from two new acts 'Dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip' and 'Battles' stood out for me this week!! Both have been creating a buzz on the internet of late and you can see why!!

Check out Dan le sac vs Scroobius pip - Thou shalt always Kill!

Good to see the Chemical Brothers back on form with their latest single 'Do it again' aswell as a welcome return from Groove Armada, but my track of the week has to go to the brilliant Mock n Toof remix of the Scissor sisters - My man

Hour 1 part 1 - 25:15

LCD Soundsystem - Losing my edge
Dan le sac vs scroobius pip - Thou shalt always kill
Battles - Atlas

Hour 1 part 3 - 20:18

Lily Allen - Alfie (CSS Remix)
Prince - Kiss (Daft Punk Mix)
Chemical brothers-do it again extended mix
Switch - A Bit Patchy (Original Mix)

Hour 2 part 1 - :20:27
Groove Armada - Get Down (album version)
Amy Winehouse - Rehab (Hot Chip remix)
Hot Chip - My piano
Teddybears - punkrocker

Hour 2 part 3 - 25:15
2000 and one - Pak pak
Scissor sisters - My man (Mock n Toof remix)
Dusty kid - I love richie
Mr Ozio - Patrick122 (Extended saxophone break)

A Bix Box Of Cassettes For You To Listen To

2007-05-18T09:34:00.000+12:00

The thing with radio is that it's so of the moment; comments, discussion, music, thoughts, are here and then, quick as a wink, they're gone. (Country Mike has a great post you should check out on this below). That's fine when it's a straight music show but here on The Beach it's a little different; it's all about community man! As I'm fond of saying "The Beach isn't just radio on Waiheke, it's Waiheke radio".

On The Beach the interviews, the performances, and even the DJ banter are telling the stories of our little island. And if you gather these stories what you've got is a slice of social history. But, like I said, on radio once the words are uttered they're gone. Sure you can record them - I've got boxes of cassettes downstairs with documentaries, live performances and special feature shows I've recorded from radio over the years but if YOU want to hear them, you've got to come to my house.
What we need is a repository where we can store recordings in a way that is readily accessible to the general public. What's that I hear you say? The internet? Now there's an idea.

Podcasts have been around for a while, and are becoming part of everyday life for many - in fact there are a couple on the sidebar that have been there for a while so you can sample what The Beach is all about. But we've been thinking that we might try something a little different. What if we could start to build a record of the social history of Waiheke as reported, discussed and broadcast on The Beach. And what if in ten years, or twenty years, or even fifty you could access it to gain an understanding of island life as it is now.

Country Mike has another great post below on The Internet Archive, a project dedicated to the ideas I've discussed above.. From now on, some of the interviews and live performances from The Beach will be recorded and posted on the The Internet Archive. Whether you want to catch up with something you missed, or you want to learn a little about life in the gulf in the early years of the 21st century, we hope these posts will be of interest.

Our radio station is pretty rough and ready, the gear doesn't work that well and we're all volunteers - we're not offering hi-fidelity or regularity. But every once and a while we'll put stuff up and we'll point to it from here on the blog.

To kick things off we have posted one of the great live-to air performances we've presented on our specialist NZ music show Counting The Beat to mark NZ Music Month.

This is the fifth year we've featured the "Live On The Beach" series. Every Sunday in May a Waiheke musician plays live. Kicking things off this year was Chris Orange who plays in local outfit, Chocolate Fish. Here he talks about his musical background and performs solo, playing original material and covering The Scavengers True Love. Take a listen.

Digging thru the Archive.org

2007-05-15T15:37:00.000+12:00

A few weeks ago a friend of mine challenged me to do a show that consisted entirely of freely available, downloadable songs. By "free" he also meant songs that were covered by one of the variety of Creative Commons licenses. The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to legally to build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses, depending on the one chosen, restrict only certain rights (or none) of the work.

So I gave it a shot, and from 9 to 10pm last night I played only songs that I downloaded from The Internet Archive Open Source music section. They are all covered by versions of the Creative Commons licenses or are in the Public Domain.

The Internet Archive is a non-profit organisation that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access to historical collections that exist in digital format. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections, and now includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in their collections. There's some amazing stuff in there ... and as the show attested to, there's also some absolutely horrible stuff. I played a bit of the horrible stuff I found as well; it's a bit like the auditions for American Idol -- some stuff i just so bad, that it's good.

Here's a list of what I played, and links to most of them.

I Hate Country - Trey Kulp
Near the Cross - Lucas Gonze
Passing Through El Paso - Adam Hayes
She's the One - Bob Powell
St. James Infirmary - Ticklepenny
Le Waldo Blues - Sylvain Piron
Country Woman - Will Batts
Context Clues - Beak
Fish Without Eyeballs & Whatnot - Snot Patties
Can't Tune a Guitar at All - Lord Open
Hallelujah! I'm a bum - Harry McClintock
What the Devil - Not Daniel Johnson

Image: The CC Glow

The DJ is a transmitter!

2007-04-10T14:37:00.000+12:00

There few times in life when you really, really get to experience each moment to it's fullest. We'd all like to live by the mantra of grabbing each of one of them as they pass by blah,blah, blah... but for the most part they're lost in the mundanity of paying the mortgage, trying to relax, or stopping the kids from hurting themselves. I feel pretty lucky because on Monday night between 8 and 10pm I get two hours when all the moments are mine. In those two hours each moment is slowed down inside a pair of headphones just long enough for me to put my spin on it, and in between a small, stinky room in the Oneroa arts complex and any number of radios on this island the moments that go out on the air waves are in the order that I want to put them. I am not the artist (my musical ability is sorely lacking), but in this pursuit I am the jigsaw maker, I decide which piece will be cut from the larger matrix of music to fit in with the other peices around it. And for those two hours I can live each moment, not only can I live it, I can make it what I want. If I want to make it sad -- easy (I do have a country music theme going on after all), if I want to make it rebellious? easy.... feel like drinking? You get the picture.

Why do I and a whole bunch of other Beach Radio DJs do it? We don't get paid for the time, or all the hours doing things like gathering new music, loading it on to computers, blogging playlists, making stings, etc. Not speaking for the rest of them, but I do it because I really like the feeling of making a show up, of getting into the groove and pulling one out, because a "show" becomes more than the sum of it's musical parts. This is why listening to the station's computer play music just doesn't really do it for most people. It's the DJ that really makes this thing hum, because the DJ is a transmitter. S/he is the soul of radio.

If you're reading this blog you probably already listen to the Beach and you may have heard a bit of the rumour or press of our somewhat troubled existence. The one thing about this station seems to be that it's bloody resilient! This island needs a radio station. That's all there is too it; and it seems to know it, because it would appear that the place has been on the brink more than a few times, but it's still here - transmitting. Keep listening, cause we're doing our best to keep thing going to keep the soul of the DJ what it's all about.

And maybe it just is the best little radio station in the world.

Who knows?

Image: Unhindered by Talent

Hauraki Hoedown - Kirk Rundstrom Tribute

2007-03-15T08:19:00.000+13:00

One of my all time favourite live Alt-country bands was Split Lip Rayfied. They were one of the most original, hard working, nose-to-the-ground musical units you'd ever hope to see and their live shows were always sweaty, high-octane, beer feuled affairs that often left me contemplating buying a crappy old van and following these guys across the beaten musical pathways of the USA. I was shocked when last year I heard that Kirk Rundstrom, the tattood guitar player and one of the main songwriters in the band had been diagnosed with Esopheagal cancer. Kirk looked kind of mean while on stage; his guitar playing was ferocious and I often wondered how the hell he kept it up for a whole show, but afterwards he was a humble and down-to-earth guy with a wife, a couple of kids and a strong passion for the type of music SLR were creating. On February 22nd, 2007 Kirk lost his battle with cancer. He had quit the chemo 'cause he was sick of laying around in bed and he got the band back together and they did what they did best - went on tour. Kirk's last show was December 8th, 2006 at the Cotillion in Wichita, Kansas. This show has fortunately been captured for airing on TV and you can watch it in 6 parts on YouTube.

I still can't believe that I will never see another Split Lip Rayfield show again ... that sucks! I'd always hoped that maybe one day we'd get them down to NZ and I think they would have liked it. I would have sold my house to see a SLR show in NZ; to have stood in front of Eaton's weedwhacker strung gastank bass, 2-fingered salute ready to go and a gut full of beer ... i'd have bought that van!

R.I.P. Kirk (but keep playing guitar!)

Xmas on the Beach

2006-12-11T13:59:00.000+13:00

Well after two of the Beach DJs being instrumental in saving the Waiheke Santa Parade from the apathy of Auckland City the thing went ahead on Saturday in all it's island glory with more floats than it's ever had and a good spectator turnout. Even despite the torrential rain that made the route back up Oneroa Village quite a battle against the forces of nature for both viewers and participants, the word on the street has been that it was one of the best parades in recent memory. So congrats to all those who put in the hard yard to get the thing back (you know who you are) and for all the Waihekians to turned out to watch.

The Beach had another spectacular float this year that consisted of a bamboo transmission tower ala Gilligans Isle on the back of Barry's trailer, surrounded by a banana tree and a couple of beach umbrellas, plus the usual DJs in their festive kiwi Xmas garb. We handed out the usual CD singles to the kids and blasted the Beach and generally a good time was had by all. Bit dissapointed to not win in any of the categories that were proferred up this year, but in effect I reckon a pat on the back for the Beach crew in making sure that the thing was still around anyways and for creating the most appropriately themed float in the parade.

Pre-parade meditations - getting in the zone.

The weather started getting rough...

There's a few more pics of the Beach float, here.

Cause of death: Heart failure due to tequila and morphine overdose

2006-11-16T14:41:00.000+13:00

Such is the cause of death listed for one Cecil Ingram Connor, III better known to some of us as Gram Parsons. This coming Sunday will mark 33 years since that fateful concoction knocked one of country musics more interesting characters out of the game - aged 26. A solo artist as well as a member of both The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, he is best known for a series of recordings which anticipate the so-called country rock of the 1970s and the alt-country movement that began around 1990. To mark the occassion I played the following songs from across Parson's oevre:

Life in Prison - The Byrds
Dim Lights - The Flying Burrito Brothers
Hot Burrito #1 - The Flying Burrito Brothers
We'll Sweep Out the Ashes - Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels (live radio broadcast)
Return of the Grevious Angel - Gram Parsons
Ooh Las Vegas - Gram Parsons
Love Hurts - Gram Parsons (duet w/ Emmylou Harris)
Sin City - Beck and Emmylou Harris

There's a fantastic bio of Gram Parsons called Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons, by Ben Fong-Torres if you're interested or quite a good article (that I contributed to years ago) here in Wikipedia. Worth a read if at least for the intriguing tale of his cremation by manager Phil Kaufman, a story that has taken on legendary proportions and been treated on screen numerous times.

The full playlist of Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown can be found here.

This weeks Mix & Mash Radio Show - 11 November 2006

2006-11-12T22:42:00.000+13:00

Yeah, good to get back in the seat after a week getting used to turning into a responsible adult, father type person somewhat earlier than expected this week!! and a good week to return it was too - Lots of new releases to keep at least this old man entertained!!!

Fatboy Slim returned with a new single, Champion Sound (which he cheekily put on his greatest hits CD a few months back), the Gossip released a single stuffed full of brillaint remixes off last years single Standing in the way of Control' and Basement Jaxx released an intruiging little track with a bit of a country flavour to it 'Take me back to your house'. Not forgetting the new single CSS - Alala (New single from the Brazilian band that brought you 'Let's make love and listen to death from above' - And it's darn funky. Essentially it's a bunch of hot Brazilian girls and an old guy making electro-party tunes in the LCD Soundsystem stylee.

Also worth a mention is The Good, The Bad And The Queen - Herculean (Out last Tuesday, 31st October) brand new from Damon Albarns's latest project and very fine it is too! He's turning out to be a bit of a national institution is our Damon isn't he?

Somewhere during the show I did play Spiller's Cry Baby (Röyksopp remix) for my new baby Bam Bam which did indeed make me cry! Must be going soft afterall!!!

Hour 1 Part 1 - 19:30

Guns n Bombs - Crossover Appeal
Fatboy Slim - Champion sound (Released on 6th November and already on his greatest hits CD out a few months back - which is a bit cheeky!!!)
The Gossip - Standing in the way of control (Playgroup mix) (From a new single release of last years brilliant Standing in the way of control from the Gossip - Other remixes include Headman, Playgroup, Tronik Youth and a belter from Soulwax.
Basement Jaxx - Take me back to your house (Out on 30 Oct 2006)

Hour 1 Part 3 - 21:56

CSS - Alala Released 30th October)
The Cure v Boomtown Rats v New Order dont like mondays its friday (club mix)(A brand new mix from Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions fame. For a copy of this and two other tracks from his new EP go to www.gohomeproductions.co.uk)
Datarock - Fa fa fa
Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel like Dancing - Erol Alkan's Carnival of Light re-work - ESSENTIAL!!!

Hour 2 Part 1 - 22:01

Beck - Nausea (new beck.com)
Teddybears - PUnkrocker
Wolfmother - Joker & the thief (to be released on 20 Nov 2006) I LOVE Wolfmother!!! :-)
The Good, The Bad And The Queen - Herculean (Out last Tuesday, 31st October)
Lily Allen - Littlest Things (Out on 9th November) Brilliant, love the lyrics from this third single from Lily Allen. The album is priceless!!
Air - Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Instrumental Mix)

Hour 2 Part 3 - 24:31

The 25 minute mix

Spank Rock - Bump (Switch Remix)
Moby - Go (Trentemoller Remix) (Check out the superb Twin Peaks sample on this brilliant track, essentially more Trentemoller than Mody!)
Spiller - Jumbo
Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler

Enough said, all quality tunes, impecably mixed into 25 glorious minutes! :-) Go to http://kimberleymansfield.multiply.com/music/item/31

Until next time!

I'd Like To Thank The Academy, My Family, And God.

2006-10-29T16:11:00.000+13:00

There has been a terrific response to the Counting The Beat Alternatuis (see the post below). This may even become an annual event.

Some of the winners have been in touch and made acceptance speeches.

Album of the Year: Steve Abel - Little Death

Steve recommends people check out the tracks he has streaming on MySpace.

Best Male Solo Artist: Dudley Benson

Best Group: The Mint Chicks

In My Humble Opinion

2006-10-23T20:23:00.000+13:00

Never mind the Tuis - Here's the Alternatuis.
Last week the Tuis were held. These are probably the biggest of the NZ music awards. There are a number of categories based on commercial and artistic success. Unlike the Silver Scrolls, which are judged on songwriting ability, for the Tuis sales and public appeal do count. This week Counting The Beat will feature some of the Tui winners alongside the Counting The Beat picks for artists and releases of the year - The Alternatuis. The criteria for selection is simply whether or not Counting The Beat rates it or not - hence, In My Humble Opinion.

Single of the Year: Chris Knox and The Nothing
What is a single anyway? There are hardly any singles actually released anymore. A single nowadays is just a track picked for promotion and airplay. Even the single charts are put together on the basis of both airplay and sales. Whether it is a real single or not - to succeed it must have a hook, be catchy as hell, and preferably a great sing-along chorus. The Tui was picked up by Pluto for "Long White Cross". The Counting the Beat Alternatui goes to Chris Knox and The Nothing for "Great Big Puppy Eyes".

Best Male Solo Artist: Dudley Benson
Dave Dobbyn picked up the Tui for this category- his fifteenth. While he must be respected for his longevity and genuine talent, these award shows can sometimes seem a bit like the Dave Dobbyn and Don McGlashan show. Here on Counting The Beat we like to showcase new talent so the Alternatui goes to newcomer Dudley Benson. I guarantee you haven't heard of this guy. He put out an EP, Steam Railways of Britain, in a limited run of 75 - a surefire way to cultdom and obscurity. But what a voice. Take a listen.

Best Female Solo Artist: Bic Runga
Bic Runga won the Tuis For Best Female Solo Artist and Best Album, and you won't get any argument from me. Birds is a fantastic album full of dark, slightly unsettling but fragile songs. Runga is a fantastic performer and a truly great songwriter. Notable mentions in the female solo artist category go to Miriam Clancy (stream of live performance here), Reb Fountain (tracks on myspace) and Flip Grater (songs and video). New Zealand is producing some very good female singer-songwriters at the moment. These three are top class.

Best Group: The Mint Chicks
Pop-punkers Elemeno P pick up the Tui. There was absolutely no doubt in the Counting The Beat camp who the Alternatui would go to. The Mint Chicks are the stand out group of the year by far. Their album Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! is superb. These guys write pop songs full of oddball structures and tangential ideas. Live, they go off like the Energiser ad. As previously heralded here on the Counting The Beat blog the Mint Chicks are currently the best band in the land.

Best Rock Album: Jakob
One of two Tuis for The Bleeders in this category, they also took out Breakthrough Artist. The Alternatui goes to Jakob for their third album Solace. Jakob are a guitar, bass and drums instrumental three piece whose songs are at once brooding , powerful and beautiful. They draw influence from the isolation and power of the landscape around their home town, Napier. I once saw this band perform at The Big Day Out. They were so loud the whole crowd took an involuntary step backwards. They built slowly to a huge crescendo and then the gear blew up - literally - smoke / silence. Awesome. The Jakob website is currently being rebuilt so check out some tracks from their myspace page.

Album of the Year: Steve Abel
As mentioned earlier Bic Runga got the Tui for best album. My pick is a little old but one of the strange things about the Tuis is that they seem to span a long timeframe. This year Dave Dobbyn was nominated for Available Light, the same album he was nominated for last year. So, if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me. Steve Abel's Little Death has also had a previous mention on this blog. He is an extraordinarilyly good songwriter - the album is haunting and quiet with the songs he often performs solo live augmented with additional instrumentationon including accordion and the additonal vocals of Golden Horse singer Kirsten Morrell. A hidden treasure in the New Zealand music scene, check out this stream of a live performance.

There you go - the Counting The Beat Alternatuis. Any questioning of the judges decisions will be treated with utter contempt. You can check out the full list of Tui winners here and if awards are your thing also take a look at the bNets.

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - Ramblin' Jack Elliot

2006-10-10T11:26:00.000+13:00

Apparently the name Ramblin' Jack is not as it may seem the mark of honor given to a well travelled man (although I'd imagine that he is that as well) but is rather the result of this 75 year olds propensity to retell countless stories before answering even the simplest of questions. It's kind of ironic that a man so prone to the conversational arts can produce an album of 16 tracks that clock in at a mere 32-and-a-half minutes. "My Old Dog and Me" lasts 19 seconds!

As you might suspect the story goes a little something like this: born 1931 in New York, ran away from home as a teenager and joined a rodeo in an attempt to fulfill his childhood dream. Learnt to play the guitar and started busking for a living. Eventually he hooked up with Woody Guthrie and lived with him as a kind of student. Not too bad. And at 75 Ramblin' Jack has changed labels and released "I Stand Alone" on the Anti- label (home to the likes of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Michael Franti & Spearhead) with an assortment of guest backup players including Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, and celebrated rockers Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker, Nels Cline, and X / Knitters drummer DJ Bonebrake.

I played one of the longest tracks on the CD: "Arthritis Blues", a nicely sung prescription of folk cures for the protaganists arthritis including apple jack, gin and opium, none of which seem to do the trick. The only cure seems to be shared misery. Theres a lot of tales shared with the listener on this short CD, tales from songs collected over a life of travelling. In an anecdote that may resonate with people on the island, Elliot was going to call this CD "Not For The Tourists" because it was recorded in response to his daughter's request for songs he loved but never played in concert. When she asked why he did not play them in public, he replied "These songs are not for the tourists".

There's a couple of free downloads of the "not for the tourist" songs available from the Anti- site, here: http://www.anti.com/media.php?id=33

The full playlist of the Hauraki Hoedown can be found at the Casa de Country Mike.

Dj Simon - MIx & Mash 7th Oct

2006-10-10T09:16:00.001+13:00

This weeks show was stuffed full of new goodies including a new track from Beck's, Cell Phone's Dead, a signature Jacque Lu Cont Thin White Duke Mix of The Killers new single When You Were Young, a great new track, (supported obviously by a stunning video) from Beyonce and two 'not so new' remixes from the DFA although they are just released on the brilliant new 'DFA remixes - Chapter 2' CD out this week. Am still loving the CSS - Let's make love and listen to death from above single (is anyone hearing that up there in the northern hemisphere?) but in the end my track of the week has to go to..........The Rapture - Get Myself Into It (Serge Santiago Edit). First up, I'm just glad that The Rapture have a returned with a quality single after a three year wait and this subtle, funky remix from Brighton's own Serge Santiago is excellent! Download it from http://kimberleymansfield.multiply.com/music/

Hour 1 Part 1 - 22:19

Shapeshifter - Electric dream
Nerd - She wants to move (DFA remix)
Beyonce Feat Jay-Z - Deja Vu
Beck - Cell Phone's Dead

Hour 1 part 3 - 21:18

Basement Jaxx - Hush boy
Chromeo - Destination overdrive (DFA remix)
The Killers - When You Were Young (Jacque Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix)
Peaches - Downtown

Hour 2 Part 1 - 19:13

The Gossip - Standing in the way of control - (Soulwax nite version)
Goose - British mode
The Rapture - Get Myself Into It (Serge Santiago Edit)
CSS - Let's Make Love & Listen Death From Above

Hour 2 Part 3 - 27:42

The '25 minute mix'

Plump DJs - Electric disco (d. ramirez remix)
Cassius Toop Toop (Cassius Reggae Rock Mix)
Robbie Williams - Lovelight (Soulwax Ravelight Dub)
Goose - British Mode (Jester Mix)

Hauraki Hoedown Playlist

2006-10-03T10:14:00.000+13:00

I followed on from another BOBcast - this time celebrating the onset of daylight savings time by playing songs with the word "time" in the title. A significantly easier task for a country boy than some of Bob's earlier themes I discovered that I had a plethora of "time" related tracks at my fingertips so instead of the usual one or two offerings I extended the cast for another hour. Here's a list of what I played:

All the Time in Airports - The Handsome Family
A Matter of Time - Los Lobos
Baby Let the Bad Times Be - Junior Brown
Cry One More Time - Gram Parsons
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Chris Thomas King
Honky Tonk Night Time Man - Merle Haggard
Pretty Woman Won't Give Me the Time of Day - National Grain
Time Changes Everything - Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Right in Time - Lucinda Williams
Time of Your Life - Pickin' on Green Day
Hard Times - Waco Brothers
On Time - Soledad Brothers
Funny How Time Slips Away - Elvis
Just Passin' Time - Dwight Yoakum
Big City Good Time Girl - Wayne "the Train" Hancock
One More Time - Alejandro Escovedo
Hi Ho Silver - Freakwater
Dumb Blonde - Dolly Parton
Japanese Cowboy - Ween
People Learn Things When I Drink - Ron White
Nashville Radio - Jon Langford
Tornadoes - Drive-by Truckers
Driving Nails in my Coffin - Ramblin Jack Elliot
O Death - Ralph Stanley
Kiss of Death - Split Lip Rayfield
Star Witness - Neko Case
Winter in the Hamptons - Josh Rouse
I Feel Just Like A Child - Devendra Banhart
Wine Don't Lie - Dale Watson
Ain't Life Hell - Hank Cochran and Willie Nelson
Donkey Ride Straight to Hell - Michael Sheehy

Thanks to everyone who filled in the Beach Radio survey by either dropping it off in the station or filling it out online. Will try to get a bit of an aggregate of what we found out and post on the blog in the coming weeks.

Mix & Mash Radio Show - 23 Sept 2006

2006-09-25T22:12:00.000+12:00

So, yeah, this weeks show. Was a a corker (even though I say so myself) There were new tracks and new bands all over the place and a general feeling of freshness in the air(waves) :-) That said, I so wanted to play the new Scissor Sisters single, I don't feel like dancin', this week. Petty it turned out to be a complete pile of old gubbins! Number 1 in the UK my arse!!!

Never mind, there were a couple of new Soulwax remixes to keep us all happy!

Hour 1 Part 1 - 20:47

The Gossip - Standing in the way of control (Soulwax remix) Go here to download this track! The second remix package of 'Standing In The Way Of Control' and here we have a lairy, synth heavy rocker from Soulwax. On the single there's also a percussive remix from Playgroup that utilizes the vocal to full effect and to round things off Headman serves up one of his dubs - Essential!!!!
Goldfapp - Satin Chic
Beck - Cell Phone's Dead (first of two tracks from Beck's soon to be released CD 'The information' coming out on Oct 3)
Roni Size - Brown paper bag (From New Forms from back in 1997 blimey almost 10 years ago...Roni Size played the Fu Bar, Auckland this Saturday.

Hour 1 part 3 - 19:33

Coldcut - True Skool (Playing Sept 28 St James, Auckland)
Basement jaxx - Hush boy (The current single)
CSS - Let's Make Love & Listen Death From Above (Brilliant)
Yoko Uno - Walking On Thin Ice - [Felix Da Housecat's Tribute Mix] An old (2003) but essential track from Felix da Housecat)

Hour 2 Part 1 - 20:42

Beck - Nausea (new beck.com) From his new album - The Information
Phoenix - Consolation prizes (A recent release from the mighty Phoenix from France)
The Rapture - Get myself into it (Current single)
Keith - Mona Lisa's Smile (Track came out a couple of weeks ago and there's some cracking remixes, one from Simian Mobile Disco) Last week's record of the week but I've grown tired of it already, funny how that happens eh!)
Jarvis Cocker - C*nts are still running the world
Jarvic Cocker quote: "I wanted you to hear it now cos It's exactly 1 year since that Live-8 thing & it was the night of that event that I wrote this song. I apologise for all the swearing but sometimes that's the only thing that seems appropriate. It's in no way a criticism of Geldof & co. but I remember thinking at the time: "Where does engaging with these politicians/businessmen really get you?" - ( 12 months on & the cunts still haven't paid up as far as I can make out) - maybe the problem is something more ..... fundamental." - Bless im!! :-)

This song (and video) is available @ http://www.myspace.com/jarvspace

Hour 2 Part 2 - 25:23

The 25 minute mix

Peter Bjorn John - Young Folks (Tomas Andersson remake
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations (Tigas out of the trance closet mix)
North Shore Pony Club - Computer Games
Robbie Williams - Lovelight (Soulwax Ravelight dub) Unbelievable! not yet released. Not a hint of Mr Williams on this one and its all the better for it
Buy now - For sale

Silver Scrolls Report: Are the Mint Chicks the Best Band in the Land?

2006-09-23T21:17:00.000+12:00

Mission accomplished! Last Wednesday, media pass in hand, I joined the likes of TV3 and National Radio in a VIP room at the Auckland Town Hall. We were there to interview the five nominees for the 2006 Silver Scrolls - the country's premier music award. Having blagged my way in at the last moment and therefore having done no interview prep whatsoever I listened in on the other interviews, partook of the complimentary drinks , and tried to look like I knew what I was doing.

After the interview session it was the mix and mingle. A five hundred strong crowd comprised of the nations top musos. Feeling a little braver I spoke to Chris Knox, Evermore, Cody from The Mint Chicks, Eddie Raynor from Split Enz and Ray Columbus. Listen out for "Your listening to . . . " stings from the last two on Counting The Beat.

The award ceremony itself is fantastic. Each of the nominated songs is performed by another New Zealand act. This leads to some great suprises and some cross-genre car crashes. In the latter category would be The North Shore Pony Club and Aaradhna covering Evermore's Running, while highlights were South Auckland teenagers Spacifix doing The Reduction Agents The Pool, and The Mint Chicks awesome version of Anika Moa's Stolen Hill. You should be able to hear excerpts of these performances and an interview I ended up doing with Don McGlashan in coming weeks on Counting The Beat.

But back to The Mint Chicks. They have just released their second album "Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!" which showcases their ability to make great pop skewed by a punk-brat anarchic aesthetic that means you never know where they are going next. One song by these guys contains more ideas than a whole album by many artists. If you haven't heard their material check out the songs streaming here. Their cover of Stolen Hill at the awards just confirmed their brilliance. The song was transformed from being an introspective quiet singer-songwriter piece to a tense, edgy thriller. Apparently they now want to include it in their live set.

The Mint Chicks are one of only two currently recording bands on the Flying Nun label, once the proud vanguard of intelligent indie pop in NZ (the other being The Shocking Pinks). Russell Brown of Public Address has been running a top five Flying Nun post which makes interesting reading. The predominance of old material is telling. Lets just hope that the labels 25th anniversary is marked by something better than the dire 'Under the Influence" album that was released for their 21st.

A box set is promised. Now that Flying Nun is under the wing of a multi-national conglomerate I fear the acts included will be the obvious ones like The Chills and The Straitjacket Fits. I've got no argument with that but I hope it's not at the cost of some of the great acts with out-of-print material that risk being lost to history. Let's hear it for Marie and the Atom!

Blogging slackness leads to catchup

2006-09-18T16:23:00.000+12:00

Due to one or two internet hassles over the past three weeks I've been a bit remiss in not posting the track listing of my last three BOBcasts, so I'm about to rectify that grossness.

August 28th - WEEKEND

Janet jacson - Weekend
Black Eyed peas - Weekend
Dillinger Escape Plan - Weekend Sex Change
Dwele - Weekend Love
Bill Anderson - Wild Weekend
Ted Nugent - Weekend Warrior
Wall Of Voodoo - Lost Weekend
Unknown Prophets - The Weekend
S O S Band - Weekend Girl
Soul Seekerz - Party For The Weekend
Letter Kills - For The Weekend
Neil Young - Out On The Weekend
Ann Nesby - This Weekend
Steve Harvey - Black & White Folks Weekends (comedy)
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Lost Weekend
Hard Fi - Living For The Weekend
Art Brut - Bad Weekend
Wet Willie - Weekeend
Sweetheart - See You On The Weekend
Terminal Head - Weekend Warriors
The Starting Line - Nights And Weekends
Rookie Of The Year - The Weekend
George Benson - Weekend In LA
Kurupt & DJ Shadow - Another Cali Weekend
Steve Warner - The Weekend
Debbie Deb - Look Out Weekends

Sept 4th - OCEAN

Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
Quercus Circus - Ocean Dreaming
Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
Groove Collective - Ocean Floor
Lustral - Ocean
Diana Krall - How Deep Is The Ocean
Led Zeppelin - The Ocean
Pablo Cruise - Ocean Breeze
Special EFX - Oceanna
Blue October - Into The Ocean
Manic Street preachers - Ocean Spray
Sparta - While Oceana Sleeps
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Walk On The Ocean
Mae - The Ocean
Starone - Songs Of The Ocean
John Mayer - Walk On The Ocean
Monica - I Will Cross The ocean For You
Acoustic Alchemy - Oceans Apart
George Strait - Ocean Front Property
The Decemberists - Oceanside
Pain Of Salvation - Oblivion Ocean

Sept 11th - SLEEP

John Lennon - How Do You Sleep
Bon Jovi - I'll Sleep When I'm dead
Cartel - The City Never Sleeps
Cher - We All Sleep alone
Electric Soft Parade - Sleep Alone
The Corrs - Only When I Sleep
Blind Melon - Sleepyhouse
Peter Gabriel & Enigma - While The Earth Sleeps
Peter Yorn - Sleep Better
Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Meatloaf - Sleep On it
Brothers In Sound - Sleep Again
Garbage - Sleep Together
Controller.Controller - Sleep Over It
The Early November - My Sleep Pattern Changed
Eric Gales - Sleepy Time Time
Dave Mathews Band - Sleep To Dream Her
Texas - Sleep
Beastie Boys - No Sleep Til Brooklyn
Z Z Top - Sleeping Bag
Socratic - Sleepless Nights
My American Heart - Don't Sleep
Silverstein - Smile In Your Sleep
Fiona Apple - Sleep To Dream

Sept 18th - RAIN

The Feelers - Rain (Kiwi Group)
The Apples In Stereo - Rainfall
Counting Crows - Rainking
Sizzla - Rain Showers
Belinda Carlisle - Summer Rain
Rolling Stones - Rain Fall Down
Garbage - Only happy When it rains
Match Box 20 - Rainmaker
The Fall - Rainmaker
LTJ Bukem - Sunrain
Stunts - Raindrops
Blind Melon - No Rain
Angeline Ball - I Cant Stand The Rain
James Blunt - Tears And Rain
The Jayhawks - Save It For A Rainy Day
Grateful dead - Box Of rain
Guns And Roses - November Rain
The Cult - Rain
Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
The Underdogs - Sittin Here In The Rain (Kiwi Group)
Tim McGraw - She's My Kinda Rain
Amanda Marshall - Let it Rain
Mondo Grosso - Tree Air & Rain On The Earth
Degrees K - Raindrop
Cascada - Cant Stop The Rain
Blue Rodeo - Rain Down On Me

...........and there you have it folks, all up to date now, time for.................?

Feedback

2006-09-16T19:46:00.000+12:00

For once feedback on the radio is a good thing! We here at The Beach would like some feedback as what YOU would like to be listening to on your Community Radio Station. If you could take time to fill in our online survey you’ll be entered into the draw to win a TEN TRIP Fullers ferry ticket. To be in to win simply fill in the survey including your name, address, and telephone number before Friday the 29th of September and the 10 Trip could be yours.

Click here for the Beach Radio Feedback Questionnaire

And The Winner Is . . .

2006-09-01T21:33:00.000+12:00

Of all the various NZ music awards - The Tuis, The bNets, Juice TV Music Awards?? etc - the most interesting have to be the Silver Scrolls. Running for over 40 years the Silver Scrolls are also regarded as highly credible. And that is because the nominees and winners are selected on the basis of songwriting talent rather than commercial success. Also the winner is voted on by a large panel that are songwriters themselves.

This can mean that you you get incredibly diverse selections amongst the 5 finalists. For example last year saw Evermore up against The Mint Chicks and Dave Dobbyn. The selected songs don't have to be by well known artists, they don't have to be singles and they don't have to be from a single genre.

This years final five are again an interesting mix. I will be featuring all five on Counting The Beat this Sunday. So in no particular order here they are.

First up, Evermore with Running. Evermore won the Silver Scroll last year with It's Too Late. This year they are up with a song from their latest album. These three brothers are huge in Australia and have also featured in the soundtrack of US teen telly show The OC. So, definitely a commercial song, with a pretty international flavour.

Anika Moa's Stolen Hill is the title track of her second album. She took a lot of time out to find herself after resisting record label attempts to market her as the next Bic Runga/Jewel. This track is representative of her attempt to assert her own personality through her songs.

Don McGlashan gets two tracks in the final five. Miracle Sun is the first single from his great solo album Warm Hands. McGlashan has an indisputable talent for story telling and characterisation in his lyrics. This song tells the story of a summertime visitor to Opononi during the season of Opo the Dolphin, managing to capture both the joy of the event and the melancholy of times past. This is the one that I think will win.

McGlashan is also nominated for Bathe in the River, a song from the soundtrack to the movie No. 2. It is soulful song delivered with vocal punch by Hollie Smith. Despite his talent I can't help thinking that a McGlashan win is a bit safe. Worldwide there seems to be a trend towards awards celebrating longevity and past glories - even Barry Manilow won an award last month ferr chrissakes!

Finally is the song I would like to win. The Pool is written by James Milne who performs under the name Lawrence Arabia. It is on one of two albums he has put out this year, a solo Lawrence Arabia album and the one that features this track with his band The Reduction Agents. The album, The Dance Reduction Agents, is great. It is full of 60s inspired pop songs that are interesting and unexpected. The nominated track is quite reminiscent of 'For the Benefit of Mr Kite' from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper. The album got great reviews but no-one bought it. Put this right - get it today. You won't find The Pool here but there are downloadable tracks on MySpace.

The Silver Scroll will be announced on Sept 20th. The award ceremony is also something special. Each nominated song is performed by another top NZ music act in their own style. Unfortunately it is invite only. My aim this year is to get meself a ticket.

DJ Simon - The Mix & Mash Radio Show - 27th August

2006-08-30T14:16:00.002+12:00

Here's the playlist for this week's show. I can't say there's a standout record of the week this week. Am loving The Gossip, especially the remixes (watch out for one from Soulwax soon) the Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve take on Kraut Rock is a winner but I've caught onto that far too later for it be nominated. The Quantic & Mr Scruff - Tell it like you mean it track is certainly up there and the Robster remix is pretty good but if I chose a Robbie williams song as a track of the week I think I might just have to shoot myself - Hmm, I dunno, you chose!!!

Hour 1 part 1 - 21:30

Lily Allen - Smile (Digital soundboy remix)
Robbie Williams - Rudebox (Soul mekanik ext vocal)
The Gossip_Standing In The Way Of Control (Le Tigre Remix)
Lazyboy - Underwear Goes Inside the Pants

Hour 1 Part 3 - 19:20

Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve - I Swim Around
Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Remix)
Hot Chip - Colours (DFA remix)

Hour 2 part 1 - 20:04

Wolfmother - Love Train
The Chemical Brothers - Shake Break Bounce
The Rapture - Get Myself Into It
EDITORS -Blood (Freelance Hellraiser Editorial)
The Futureheads - Worry about it later

Hour 2 Part 3 - 25:00

Peter Bjorn John - Young folks (Tomas andersson remake)
North Shore Pony Club - Computer Games
Hot chip - over and over solid groove remix
Scissor sisters - I dont feel like dancing (Paper faces mix)
Goose - Black gloves

Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown Playlist

2006-08-30T09:23:00.000+12:00

Here is the playlist for Country Mike’s Hauraki Hoedown on Beach Radio for Monday August 28th, 2006.

El Paso/Out on the Weekend - Giant Sand
Stubborn Beast - Jolie Holland
Ruination Day Part II - Gillian Welch
Needle in the Hay - Elliot Smith
I Won't Let You Down - Travel by Sea
Old Blue - Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Spit and Tears - Damnations
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley Cover) - Ray Lamontagne
I've Always Been Crazy - Waylon Jennings
I Wish I Was Crazy Again - Dale Watson
Crazy - Willie Nelson
No Fun - The Black Keys (Stooges cover)
Lowdown Streamline - The Soledad Brothers
Bush War Blues - Billy Bragg
Hospice for Destitute Lovers - Steve Abel
Your Loves Not In Vain - Broken Heartbreakers
Nest Egg - Phoenix Foundation
Broken Hills - the Boxcar Guitars
Surfer Girl - Beach Boys (rehearsal version, 1967)
Bamboo Swing - Bill Sevesi Team
The World is Waiting for a Sunrise - Jon Rauhouse
Sap - Freakwater
Bowling Alley Bar - The Handsome Family
Aftermath USA - Drive-by Truckers
The Hand that Throws the Bottle Down - The Waco Brothers
Venom Wearing Denom - Junior Brown
Roka - Calexico
The Ladder - Alejandro Escovedo
Por Las Parrandas - Flaco Jimenez*
When I Was Drinking - Hem

* I was sort of right about Parrandas ... they're Puerto Rican / Cuban form of Christmas carolling.

The Mix & Mash Radio show - 18th August 2006

2006-08-26T01:27:00.000+12:00

Another week and another set of quality tunes to inflict upon an unsuspecting Island. If only the web streaming was up, I could broadcast to the whole planet!!! Ah well, just another couple of weeks to wait I'm told.

Track of the week

Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Remix)

The original version of this is the feelgood song of the winter (northern hemisphere) summer and is a song that is singlehandledly restoring whistling to its rightful place in pop! This 'Beyond the Wizzard' Sleeve' 'remix is beautifully stretched out, emphasising the bass and samples enough of the words and whistling to make cheer up even the most miserable of punters!!!

Ha ha - Have just been surfing around and found out that 'Beyond the Wizzard's Sleeve' are an alter ego of Riton and my (second) favourite Uber-muso - Erol Alkan. Well there's a thing! :-)

Go to http://kimberleymansfield.multiply.c9

01. GHP “Marvin’s Not In Love (Part1)” Marvin Gaye ‘Lets Get In On’ // 10CC ‘I’m Not In Love’
02. Mark Vidler “Strawfields To Skyplain”
03. GHP “Cold Missy School Cut” Coldcut ‘The Music Maker’ // Coldcut ‘True Skool’ // Missy Elliot ‘One Minute Man’
04. GHP “Don’t Hold Back (Sweet Jane)” Chemical Brothers ‘Galvanize’ // The Velvet Underground ‘Sweet Jane’
..... U2 ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ // MARRS ‘Pump Up The Volume’ // Blur ‘To The End’
05. Mark Vidler vs Andre Popp “Ophelian Dub” Andre Popp ‘Ophelia’
06. GHP “Velvet Sugar” The Archies ‘Sugar Sugar’ // The Velvet Underground ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’..... Bassment Jaxx ‘Where’s Your Head At?’
07. GHP “Riders Of Love” ABC ‘The Look Of Love (Part 4) // The Doors ’Riders On The Storm’
08. GHP “I Can’t Freak Her” XTC ‘I Can’t Own Her’ // Adina Howard ‘Freak Like Me'
09. GHP “Paul Wilson” The Beach Boys ‘I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ // Wings ‘Let ’Em In’
10. GHP “All My Birds” The Beatles “All My Loving” // The Beatles ‘For No One’ // Annie Lennox “Little Bird’

Hour 2 Part 1 - 19:22

Jim noir - Eanie meany (fat boy slim radio edit)
Madonna - Lycra Virgin (Moc2Fem>

The Mix & Mash Radio Show - 19th August 2006

2006-08-22T23:15:00.000+12:00

Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown Playlist

2006-08-22T09:23:00.000+12:00

Many thanks to Cowboy Bob for filling in for me last week as I was laid up w/ the leurgy ... he did a great show and even posted the playlist... cher! I followed his latest monday BOBcast with a couple of Sunday songs myself which was his theme this week. Not sure if i'll get time to really write up a highlight but I'm thinking that something on the Freakwater CD that I've progressively been playing is in order.

Sunday Morning Coming Down - Johhny Cash
Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day - Frank Black
Country Mike's Theme Song - Beastie Boys
Hong Kong Blues - Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Come On In - R.L. Burnside
My Mind is Ramblin - The Black Keys
Flapping Your Broken Wings - The Handsome Family
Panic Open String - Calexico
When I Was Drinking - Hem
Double Clutch - Freakwater
Blacklisted - Neko Case
Dear Head on the Wall - Alejandro Escovedo
Lonely I Be - Steve Abel
Walkin on Hells Roof Looking at the Flowers - The Waco Brothers
High Places - Los Lobos
Let It Roll - The Willard Grant Conspiracy
Girl In the War - Josh Ritter
White Center - Damien Jurado
The Beatles - Devendra Banhart
Gray Stables - Iron & Wine
Arthritis Blues - Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Hobo Blues - John Lee Hooker
Righteously - Lucinda Williams
These Golden Jewels - The Handsome Family
Strange Weather - Tom Waits
Waiting for a Sign - Jon Dee Graham
Salvador Sanchez - Sun Kil Moon

Hauraki Hoedown with Country Bob (Mikes Cuzzi)

2006-08-15T17:08:00.000+12:00

I had the opportunity Monday night to fill in for Country Mike on the Hauraki Hoedown, and I must say this is one show I love to guest for. Heres a list of the tracks I played for my cousin
Country Mike.

Hal Ketchum - Small Town Saturday Night - Past The Point Of Rescue 1991
Southern Culture On The Skids - Banana Pudding
Aaron Trippin - Aint Nothing Wrong With The Radio
Alan Jackson - Pickup Man
Bonnie Raitt - Unnecessarily Mercenary
Cowboy Junkies - Hunted
Los Lobos & John Hiatt - Down On The Riverbed
Joe Ely - Rock Salt & Nails
Iron & Wine & Calexico - Prison On Route 41
Blue Rodeo - Bulletproof (Album Vers)
The Legendary Shack Shakers - Blood On The Bluegrass
Travis Tritt - Ten Feet Tall & Bulletproof
Lonnie Mack - Rockin Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu
Lousiana Red - Down So Long
Jeff Foxworthy - Drinking Do's & Dont's (comedy)
Mitch Woods & The Rocket 88's - Shakin The Shack
Powder Blues Band - Thirsty Ears
The Legendary Shack Shakers - Shake Your Hips
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - Hidden Superstition
Ricky Skaggs & K T Oslin - Seven Hillsides
The Phoenix Foundation - Slightest Shift In The Weather
Dierks Bentley - How Am I Doin?
Lonnie Mack - Too Rock For Country
Stoney LaRue - Hardwired
Dave Alvin - King Of California
Jimmy Rodgers Allstar Band - Gonna Shoot You Right Down
Southern Culture On The Skids - 69 El Camino
Grateful Dead - One More Saturday Night
Lorrie Morgan - Five Minutes

It was indeed an Honour and a Pleasure.

Saturday Is But One Day

2006-08-15T15:34:00.000+12:00

So the BOBcasts keep on coming and here is the list of songs that were played Monday 14/08/06.
Songs with the word Saturday in their title and the Albums they came from:-

Bon Jovi - Someday I'll Be Saturday Night - Crossroads (Japan Release) 1999
Oceansize - Saturday Morning Breakfast Show - Effloresce 2003
Marc Broussard - Saturday - Carenco 2004
De La Soul - Roller Skating Jam Saturday
Ozomatli - Saturday Night - Street Signs 2004
Cold Chisel - Saturday Night - Twentieth Century 1984
John Fogerty - Almost Saturday Night - Premonition 1998
Charlie Daniels Band - Louisiana Saturday Night - Greatest Hits 1987
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Saturday Night Special - The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd 1998
Jason Forrest - Skyrocket Saturday - Shamelessly Exciting 2005
Milo - Saturday People - Darkside Of The Rumours 2003
Joey Negro - Saturday - Mint unknown year of release
Kylie Minogue Vs Whigfield - Saturday Night Remix - Just another horrible Mix & Mash
Nickleback & Kid Rock - Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting - Charlies Angels Full Throttle
Soundtrack 2003
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Saturday Night - So I Married An Axe Murderer Soundtrack 1993
Suburban Reptiles - Saturday Night Stay At Homes - 12 inch release Kiwi Band
Eels - Saturday Morning - Music From The OC Mix2 2004
Groove Collective - Saturday Afternoon - Self Titled Album 1993
Oliver Cheatham - Get Down Saturday Night - Pure Groove The Classics 2003
Cherrelle with Alexander O'Neal - Saturday Love - Greatest Hits 2005
Vertical Horizon - Sunrays And Saturdays - Running On Ice 1995
Holly Cole - The Heart Of Saturday Night - Temptation 1999
Cat Stevens - Another Saturday Night - Very Best Of 2000
Fall Out Boy - Saturday - Take This To Your Grave 2003
The Rocket Summer - Saturday - Calendar Days 2003

......and there you have it!

No Bo Derek Here

2006-08-14T14:38:00.000+12:00

The Bobcast Special last Monday 07/08/06 was the last of the numerical sequence that I started at number 1 and finished on 10. However don't despair of these specials disappearing off the radar, as I have three more lined up already with ideas pouring in from fellow staffers and esoterical ethers.

Herewith the TEN Special:-

Fauna Flash - Ten (Kyoto Jazz Massive Remix)
Missy Higgins - Ten Day
Buddy Guy - Ten Years Ago
Aerosmith - Big Ten Inch Record
Motley Crue - Ten Seconds Of Love
The Cure - Ten Fifteen Saturday Night
The Bats - Ten To One
The Hives - 10AM Automatic
Underoath - I Got Ten Friends And A Crowbar
Five For Fighting - Ten Miles From Nowhere
Led Zeppelin - Ten Years Gone
INXS - Gods Top Ten
Kill Hannah - 10 More Minutes With You
Prince Buster - Ten Commandments Of Man
UB 40 - One In Ten
Halifax - Ten Fingers Isn't Enough
The Get Up Kids - Ten Minutes
George Canyon - Working On Ten
Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists
Bury Your Dead - Ten Minute Romance
Tracy Byrd - Ten rounds With Jose Cuevero
The Wailin Jennys - Ten Mile Stilts
George Carlin - The Ten Commandments (comedy)
Vinnie Colaiuta & Robben Ford - Ten Goku
Travis Tritt - Ten Feet Tall & Bulletproof

There ya go folks, stay tuned to the beach on 99.4fm & 107fm on Waiheke Island and hopefully
streaming on the web again in the near future as major tele comms are being devised.

Special BOBcasts coming up featuring the words Saturday Sunday & Weekend!!!!

DJ Simon - The Mix & Mash Radio show 12th August 2006

2006-08-12T16:14:00.000+12:00

I was off air last week so it was good to get back behind the desk. Loadsa new stuff this week.

Tune of the week: Goose - Black gloves (Extended mix)

Peter Bjorn And John 'Young Folks' almost got there this week but this gorgeous, throbbing, funky dance tune pipped it at the post. Goose are a four-piece band from Belgian and have thrust their synth-based, rocking sound on the world, and it's catchy as hell. It's really clear that a lot of influences have gone into this release. Pumping, jerky, thick beats proliferate, allowing the track penetrates your consciousness, making it way more accessible than something you'd hear at a rave. However, it still retains that unique sound that makes Goose so special.

The combination of vocals, record scratching, synth and funky backing tune make 'Black Gloves' one of the stand-out dance releases of the year.

This is a track that could become truly mainstream in Britain, and has already demonstrated this potential by being featured on a recent ad for Coca Cola across Europe. 'Black Gloves' is due to be let out to pasture on a very limited release, and will only be available on vinyl, so you'd do well to get out there and purchase it while you can.

Hour 1 Part 2 - 19:14

Lily Allen - Smile (Digital Soundboy remix)
Britney Spears v Linus loves - Britney loves linus (Essexboy bootleg)
Destiny's Child v Thin Lizzy - Waiting for a destiny (GHP Bootleg) - Priceless!
Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks

Hour 1 Part 3 - 18:39

GO HOME PRODUCTIONS-THE BLUE ROOM MIX (2006) As aired on Radio1's Blue Room Show 15/07/2006

01. GHP “Marvin’s Not In Love (Part1)” Marvin Gaye ‘Lets Get In On’ // 10CC ‘I’m Not In Love’
02. Mark Vidler “Strawfields To Skyplain”
03. GHP “Cold Missy School Cut” Coldcut ‘The Music Maker’ // Coldcut ‘True Skool’ // Missy Elliot ‘One Minute Man’
04. GHP “Don’t Hold Back (Sweet Jane)” Chemical Brothers ‘Galvanize’ // The Velvet Underground ‘Sweet Jane’..... U2 ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ // MARRS ‘Pump Up The Volume’ // Blur ‘To The End’
05. Mark Vidler vs Andre Popp “Ophelian Dub” Andre Popp ‘Ophelia’
06. GHP “Velvet Sugar” The Archies ‘Sugar Sugar’ // The Velvet Underground ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’..... Bassment Jaxx ‘Where’s Your Head At?’
07. GHP “Riders Of Love” ABC ‘The Look Of Love (Part 4) // The Doors ’Riders On The Storm’
08. GHP “I Can’t Freak Her” XTC ‘I Can’t Own Her’ // Adina Howard ‘Freak Like Me'
09. GHP “Paul Wilson” The Beach Boys ‘I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ // Wings ‘Let ’Em In’
10. GHP “All My Birds” The Beatles “All My Loving” // The Beatles ‘For No One’ // Annie Lennox “Little Bird’

This entire mix (above) was ripped from a gohomeproductions set put together for the Blue Room and broadcast on BBC Radio 1 last month is available to download @ http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/mp3.html

Hour 2 Part 1 - 19:22

Jim Noir - Eanie meany (fat boy slim radio edit)
Madonna - Lycra Virgin (Mock & Toof remix)
Justin Timberlake - Sexy back
Gorillaz - Kids with guns - Hot chip remix
Lazy Boy - Underwear Goes Inside the Pants

Hour 2 Part 3 - 24:52

Goldfrapp - Ride a white horse (fk ek vocal version)
Donna Summer v Gnarls Barclay - I Feel Crazy (PartyBen mashup)
Scissor sisters - I dont feel like dancing (Paper faces mix)
Goose - Black gloves (Extended mix)

Beach Radio's live streaming is down at the moment while we switch ISP but check back to www.beachradio.net soon to listen live 12-2 here in NZ, 1am BST and 2am CET.

Country Mike's Hauraki Hoedown Playlist

2006-08-08T09:50:00.000+12:00

Sorry to break the illusion that we're broadcasting from a secret tricked out high tech bunker somewhere beneath Stony Batter ... but this is pretty much what Beach Radio looks like most of the time. If you look hard enough you might just make out the duct tape that holds the desk together.

Thought I'd chuck my playlist up in case anyone was interested. Of note tonight I thought was a kind of experimental piece (way out of line from my usual faire), by a guy called Mazen Kerbaj who recorded this piece "Starry Night" from the balcony of his flat in Beirut with himself on trumpet and the Israeli airforce providing the bombs! Eerie and quite disturbing; you can grab a copy from the link in the playlist.

Ten Little Kids - the Jayhawks
Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine - the White Stripes
Portland, Oregon - Loretta Lynn
Arthritis Blues - Ramblin' Jack Elliot (w/ David Hidalgo)
Elvis Presley Blues - Gillian Welch
Blue Moon of Kentucky - the King
Cathy Ann - Freakwater
That Teenage Feeling - Neko Case
Neverending Math Equation - Sun Kil Moon
All the Time in Airports - the Handsome Family
Graviy/Falling Down Again - Alejandro Escovedo
Starry Night - Mazen Kerbaj/Trumpet, Israeli Airforce/Percussion
Time of the Preacher - Johnny Cash
Three Days - L7
Made in Japan - Buck Owens
The Lost and Found - the Derailers
Don't Worry Baby - Los Lobos
Aftermath USA - Drive-by Truckers
Blinding Sun - Jimmie Dale Gilmore
My Mind is Ramblin - The Black Keys
Woody's Last Ride - Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Everything Beautiful is Far Away - Grandaddy
The Madonna Trilogy - The Meat Purveyors
My Grey and Fading Dream - Jim and Jenny and the Pinetops
He Lays the Reins - Iron and Wine | Calexico
Lived in Bars - Cat Power
Stubborn Beast - Jolie Holland

BOBcasts updated

2006-08-01T10:08:00.000+12:00

I have been really slack the past couple of weeks by not posting the track listing so herewith are the last few weeks.

The SIX Special
DJ Shadow - 6 Days (Soulwax Mix)
Soul Drive - 6th Avenue
Split Enz - 6 Months In A Leaky Boat
B52's - 6 Oh 6 Oh 842
Creed - 6 Feet From The Edge
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - 6 Barrel Shotgun
Rise Against - Six Ways Til Sunday
Common - Sixth Sense
DJ Hype & Zinc - 6 Million Ways To Die
Project 86 - Six Sirens
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
New Order - Sixty Miles An Hour
Yellowcard - One Year Six Months
Son Volt - 6 String Belief
Dire Straits - Six Blade Knife
Steve Earle - Six Days On The Road
Big & Rich - Six Foot Town
Sawyer Brown - 6 Days On The Road
Grace Gale - 6 Of Hearts
Fred Eaglesmith - My Last Six Dollars
Tool - Forty Six & Two
Son Volt - Afterglow 61
Dave Alvin - Highway 61 Revisited
Hot Lizard - 165 Drop
Triple Six Mafia - Triple Six Anthem

The SEVEN Special,

Armin Van Burren - Seven Cities
Jamiroquai - 7 Days In June
Toni Braxton - Seven Whole Days
Prince - Seven
Echo & The Bunnymen - Seven Seas
Teddy Geiger - Seven days Without You
Bob Dylan - Seven Curses
Freezepop - Seven Boom medley
The Sounds - Seven Days A Week
White Stripes - Seven nation Army
TNT - Seven Seas
Wah - Seven Minutes To midnight
Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
Brand New - 70 Times 7
Feeder - Seven Days In The Sun
Controller.Controller - Silent Seven
10 Years - Seven
Fleetwood Mac - Seven Wonders
Craig David - Seven days
Mary J Blige - Seven Days
Corrosion Of Conformity - Seven Days
Bleeding Through - #7 With A Bullet
Ricky Scaggs/ K T Oslin - Seven Hillsides
Willie Nelson & Ray Charles - 7 Spanish Angels
Nenah Cherry & Youssou N'Dor - 7 Seconds Away

The EIGHT Special

Underworld - 8 Ball
Love Tattoo - 88
The Byrds - Eight Miles High
Alanis Morissette - Eight Easy Steps
Reckless Kelly - Eight More Miles
The Andrew Sisters - Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar
The Beatles - Eight Days A Week
Pitchshifter - Eight Days
Nada Surf - 80 Windows
O.V.Wright - Eight Men Four Women
David Bowie - Eight Line Poem
Styx - Pieces Of Eight
I Am Kloot - 86 Tv's
Pitch Black - The 48 Sharks - Kiwi Dub Group
Dot. Hack Infection - Eight Phases
Senses Fail - One Eight Seven
Tokyo Rose - The Hard Eight
Ambry - Eight Letter Homicide
Taking Back Sunday - One Eight By Summer
Tom Robinson Band - 2 4 6 8 Motorway
Glassjaw - When One Eight Becomes Two Zeros
Stereoblis - Eight Half Letters
Chris LeDoux - Hooked On An Eight Second Ride
Aceyalone - Eighty Five
Killing Joke - Eighties

The NINE Special

Nautilus - Nine Miles
Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicycles
Bryan Adams - Cloud #9
Bare Naked Ladies - This Is Me In Grade Nine
Hit The Lights - 309
Third Eye Blind/Blink 182 - Nine Days
Brand New - My Nine Rides Shotgun
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Boozoo Bajou - 9 Below Zero
Nicole Wray - Cloud Nine
Anthony B - Nine Yard
Unknown Artist - Nine Inch Banana
Elephant Man - Lift Up Your Nine
The Cat Empire - Nine Lives
Herb albert & The Tijuana Brass - Love Potion No 9
Styles Of Beyond - Nine Thou (Superstars Remix)
Spice 1 - Peace To My Nine
Red Rat - Nine Night Riddum
Bill monroe - Nine Pound Hammer
Dolly Parton - Working Nine To Five
Weird Al Yankowic - Nine Coronas
Dave Alvin - Nine Volt Heart
The ataris - Eight Of Nine
The Moldy Peaches - Lucky No 9
Tech 9 - Here Comes Techa Nine
Project Pat - Nine To Yo Dome
Catch 22 - 9mm & A Three Piece Suit

Yeah I know there's a couple of shonky titles in that lot but they just squeeze in as far as I'm concerned, and as I have stated before if you need to check out any of these bands then wikipaedia or allmusic.com are good places to start. Keep your ears on!

Lost for Words

2006-07-20T21:05:00.000+12:00

This week I'm launching a new weekly feature on Counting the Beat. Lost for Words will be a regular showcase for great kiwi instrumentals. Each week I will play one or two songs san vocals.

The series was inspired by a new album I picked up by a band called Salon Kingsadore. Once I had struck on this idea the immediate question I had to ask myself was how to define an instrumental. On the surface it seems quite simple, a piece of music that doesn't feature voice. But the whole electronic / dance music thang muddies the water. Sure it might not feature vocals but is the music made by Pitch Black or Concord Dawn what you think of as an instrumental. (Come to think of it some of that music doesn't even feature instruments, unless you're going to count a laptop.)

If we look back a bit it gets easier. Many early kiwi rock acts in the 1960s aped their overseas counterparts such as the Stone etc and some also picked up on huge instrumental acts like The Shadows or the American surf guitar sound of Dick Dale, Link Wray and so on. In New Zealand the biggest instrumental act was Peter Posa, his most famous tune - White Rabbit. He drew on the surf guitar sound but wasn't quite so drenched in reverb and was a mighty fine picker. It is with Peter that I will start the Lost for Words series because he was the master. He is still around playing gospel and in fact he put out an album a couple of years back.

The instrumental tradition is still going strong in New Zealand and much of the best is still in a surf guitar vein (The Counting the Beat podcast that you can link to on the right is a kiwi surf guitar special). Check out tracks by The Hollow Grinders.

Anyway, Lost For Words will feature the best in kiwi instrumentals over the next few weeks. I would love to hear any suggestions you have, click on comments below.

The Mix and Mash Radio show - DJ Simon July 15th

2006-07-17T22:39:00.003+12:00

Yeah some good tunes out at the moment as listed below. The Lily Allen's a surefire winner as is (strangely) the new Christina Aguilara single (out this week) and the Peaches track promises much for the forthcoming album. My tune of the week though has to be 'Jim Noir - Eanie Meany (Fat boy slim remix)'. The original was fine as it was to be honest but the Fatboy's added some more umph to the drums and some extra bleeps where necessary and it's converted into a modern uplifting classsic. Kinda what Norman does best really - and it's all about football too! You may well have heard the song recently. You recall that Adidas ad that was playing during the world cup where 2 young lads are picking there team for a game of soccer (sic) and chose from such luminary stars as David Beckham, Franz Becckenbauer, Zidane etc? Well it's the tune used in that ad.

Hour 1 Part 1 - 18:27

Pepe deluxe - Before you leave
Christina Aguilara - Ain't No Other Man
Gorillaz - Dirty Harry - Paul Mac Remix.
Peaches - Downtown
Lily Allen - Smile

Hour 1 Part 3 - 19:35

Jim Noir - Eanie Meany (Fat boy slim radio edit)
Lazyboy - Police dogs bonfire (linus loves mix)
Tiga - (Far From) Home The Speed Of Sexor Reprise
Daft Punk - The prime time of your life

Hour 2 Part 1 - 19:52

Muse - Supermassive black hole
Snow Patrol - Alpine Stars
Fatboy slim - Praise you (mike d and adrock remix)
Gorillaz - El manana (Metronomy remix)
Freelance Hellraiser - You Can Cry All You Want

Hour 2 Part 3 - 22:08

Goldfrapp - Ride a white horse (fk ek vocal version)
Madonna - Get Together (Tiefschwarz remix)
Gabrielle - Forget About The World (Daft Punk Remix)

Madonna - Get together

Oh you can always tell when someone is flavour of the month because Madonna's people get them in for a remix. Tiefschwarz drop this floor-friendly electrohouse remix.

Peaches - Downtown

As a prelude to her forthcoming album "Impeach My Bush", Peaches returns with new tracks to whet our appetites. Unique with her minimal pumping beats and loved by true innovators as diverse as Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Bjork, Josh Homme, Lil Kim, Marilyn Manson, Kelis, 2 Many DJs, MIA and LCD Soundsystem.

Melancholy: Bleak is the New Black

2006-07-16T14:16:00.000+12:00

Some of the best NZ music ever has been melancholic, dark, depressive and even downright gothic (think of the meaning of the word of here, not Bauhaus and The Cure). Bands like The Chills, The Gordons, The 3Ds were all top standard, as good as anything else in the world, but none of them wrote songs your likely to hear at a kids birthday party. And when NZ bands have gone for the happy sound the results have been dire - remember "Melting Pot" by When the Cats Away - or "For Today" by The Netherworld Dancing Toys? Awful!

This month there have been a slew of great releases by kiwi acts that wallow in the melancholy. Bleak is the new black.

First up - Cassette. This band released a stone cold classic EP called EMO in 2000. The EP drew on everything great about laid back country era Neil Young but managed to sound fresh with engaging songs and great hooks. EMO has been on high rotate at home and on my show for five years. Cassette first started talking about an album release around 2001. Five years later Cut For Summer is here. (True to form they're still running late, releasing an album of that title in the midst of winter.)

So, has it been worth the wait? Absolutely. There are a handful of tracks on here, Pieces, Not Home and What a Relief, that could easily have sat on EMO. These songs are vey laid back, so slow they're almost not moving forward. There are a couple of rockers, one of which, Pick Me Up, has a great muted guitar refrain that just gets under your skin. Towards the end a couple of the songs are less engaging, but that seems to be the case with just about every albums these days.

The other thing about this album is that it's a grower. First time through I was thinking "okay", now I'm finding it hard to listen to anything else. You can stream tracks from both Cassette releases here.

A couple of other releases warrant mention too. The Haints of Dean Hall have put out a self released album on Arch Hill Records. Not to everyone's taste, this album is sparse and quiet, many tracks featuring only acoustic guitar and vocal, although a couple of tracks are reminiscent of the great NZ gothic country outfit The Renderers.

A haint is a southern term for a ghostly steam rising off the road, often mistaken to be a ghost, and the songs on this album are ghost like, definitely present but hard to get hold of. I'm still getting my head around this, but if you like acts like Bonnie "Prince" Billy, the great Steve Abel, or quieter moments of the Renderers give it a try. You can stream and download tracks here.

Finally, well worth checking out is the new album from Don McGlashan, Warm Hand. This has had plenty of media, so I won't say too much. However, the standout feature of this album is his melancholic lyrics. My favourite track, Toy Factory Fire, is narrated through the eyes of a New York executive whose company was ran a third world sweatshop factory that burnt to the ground killing 151 workers (a true story). There aren't many people who could turn that into a song without being heavy handed and overly polemic, but Don McGlashan is one.

For these and other depressing songs make sure you tune into Counting The Beat, Sundays at 6pm.

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - Scott H Biram

2006-07-14T15:20:00.000+12:00

A couple of years ago Scott H. Biram was involved in a near fatal car wreck on the way home from a gig. A head-on collision with an 18-wheeler resulted in multiple fractures and massive internal injuries but the bluesman survived, and was back on stage a week after his release from the hospital. Apparently his comeback show consisted of Biram on stage in a wheelchair complete with I.V. drip, 2 broken legs, a broken foot, a broken arm and 1 foot less of his lower intestine. It's a kind of mythical story - pulled back from the edge sort of stuff, that will, if this guy keeps making music the way he does, add another great bluesman story to the pile.

The self proclaimed "Dirty Old One Man Band" fuses together blues, hillbilly and country precariously into a raucous punk rock style fusion with the odd wink towards a not so latent flirtation with metal. Or something like that anyways ... download a couple of free Biram tracks here and start your own damn blog :-)

http://www.scottbiram.com/

The full playlist for for Country Mike’s Hauraki Hoedown for Monday July 10th, 2006, can be found here at the Casa de Country Mike.

Famous Five Discover Music

2006-07-04T11:35:00.001+12:00

Another two hour BOBcast this week about songs with the word Five in their title, as follows the tracks played.

The Vogues - Five O'Clock World
Fat Freddys Drop - Five Day Night
Mazzy Star - Five String Serenade
Patrick Nuo - Five Days
Stars - First Five Times
Spitalfield - Five Days & Counting
McFly - Five Colours In Her Hair
Soilwork - Figure Number Five
Megadeath - Five Magics
Five By Design - Five More minutes
Blue Rodeo - Five Days In May
Alabama - Five O'Clock 500
Dane Cook - Five Sisters (comedy)
Stranglers - Five Minutes
Less Than jake - Five State Drive
Choking Victim - Five Finger Discount
Cord Lund Band - Five Dollar Bill
Alan Jackson/ Jimmy Buffet - Its Five O'Clock Somewhere
Hoyt Axton - Five Hundred Miles
Prince - Five Women
The Looniz - I Got Five On It
Raffi - Five Frogs (childrens song maybe)
The Doors - Five To One
Taking Back Sunday - No Five With A Bullet
Lost Prophets - Five Is A Four Letter Word
Robert Earle Keene Jr - Five Pound Bass
Lorrie Morgan - Five Minutes
Hollywood Undead - Number Five

So there you go until next week, enjoy your music.

Four On The Floor

2006-07-04T11:35:00.000+12:00

The two hour BOBcast and track listing for the week of songs with the word Four in the title is as follows:-

Starsailor - Four to the Floor (Thin White Duke Mix)
Clock DVA - Four Hours
Halfway Home - Four Months Until The Swarm
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Four Wheel Drive (dedicated to all the Waiheke Mums in their big shopping baskets who can't keep left)
Boys To Men - Four Seasons Of Loneliness
Aaliyah - Four Page Letter
Kings Of Leon - Four Kicks
Living Things - On All Fours
Badly Drawn Boy - Four Leaf Clover
Crowded House - Four Seasons In One Day
Athlete - Twenty Four Hours
Metallica - The Four Horsemen
Tom Robinson Band - 2 4 6 8 Motorway
The Junction - In Components Of Four
Bloodhound Gang - 3 Point One Four
Castanets - 3 Days Four Nights
Robert Plant - Let Four Winds Blow
Led Zeppelin - Four Sticks
Dead Poetic - Four Wall Blackmail
O V Wright - 8 Men 4 Women
Nina Simone - Four Women
Abra Moore - Four Leaf Clover
Pretty Willie - Four Walls
Cheyenne Kimball - Four Walls
Avant - Four Minutes

......and there you have it, til next week.

Is 3 a crowd?

2006-06-23T16:08:00.000+12:00

Following on from the specials that have been posted herewith is the week I played all songs for two hours with the word three in their title:-

Coheed & Cambria - Three Evils
Matchbox Twenty - Three AM
Ever We Fall - Three Wires In
The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys
Autolux - Twenty Three Watt Apple Juice
Catch 22 - 9mm & A Three Piece Suit
Eric Clapton & B B King - Three O'Clock Blues
Meatloaf - Two Out Of Three Aint Bad
Billy Connelly - Three Condoms (comedy)
The Wallflowers - Three Marlenas
U2 - The Three Sunrises
Valencia - Three Thousand Miles From Here
Janes Addiction - Three Days
Lynard Skynard - Gimme Three Steps
The Starting Line - Three Is A Charm
Fenix TX - Threesome
FM Static - Three Days Later
Mayday Parade - Three Cheers For Five Years
Finch - Three Simple Minds
Swing Kids - Forty Three seconds
Jamie Foxx - Three Letter Word
The Chemical Bros - Three Little Birdies Downbeats (instrumental)
Terri Clark - Three Mississippi
Randy Travis - Three Wooden Crosses

If you want to know more about any of these artists I always head for www.allmusic.com, possibly one of the best music data bases on offer.

What I really like about Alt-Country (whatever that is..?) is the Alt

2006-06-13T09:59:00.000+12:00

When I started listening to this stuff back in the late 90's I was a pretty dedicated punk rocker, and if you'd have told me at that time that in 10 years I'd be hosting a country music oriented show I'd probably have choked on my beer and told you to p*ss off. But, to quote Bob Wills among others, "Time Changes Everything". What I really like about Alt-country though is still actually the punk parts of it, where the same ingredients; the sex, drugs, death, loss, longing and alienation, are all rolled in together with a touch of twang and a DIY ethic that even the best of punk rockers would have to nod along to.

One of those punk rockers has been John Doe, who's solo career after the seminal LA punk band X has had all those ingredients and often explored country styled genres most notably in the Knitters an early attempt to blur the punk rock / country divide. Doe's most recent solo offering "Forever Hasn't Happened Yet" released in 2005 is a bluesy, country-folk album with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf in mind and one that pulls on a number of substantial musical guests (Dave Alvin, Grant-Lee Phillips, Neko Case, Kristin Hersh, Doe's daughter Veronica Jane, Excene Cervenca) to make one of the top CDs of last year. I've been playing selections off this CD for quite some time now, including the track I played last night called "Twin Brother" (for a full playlist see Casa de Country Mike.)

You can find out more about Doe and listen to a couple of tracks from Forever Hasn't Happened Yet here: http://www.theejohndoe.com/

I've Been Everywhere: A Musical Journey From the North to the South of New Zealand

2006-06-12T19:39:00.000+12:00

On Sunday June 18 Counting the Beat will feature the long promised place name special. The deal is that all songs on the show have a New Zealand place name as their title. As you may imagine the result is an eclectic array of musical styles, from folk, to electronica, to punk and more. This post highlights a few of the artists, songs and locations featured.

Auckland Tonight - The Androidss
One of two songs about Auckland comes from The Androidss (sic), a band that actually hail from Christchurch. You can read a short bio on the excellent thebigcity site, an essential for your favourites list if you are into alternative kiwi acts.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - Peter Cape

I've Been Everywhere - John Hore
John Hore gave John Denver his name. He later changed his own name to John Grenell. Who knew? More info here.

There you go; a musical journey from North to South. Of course, there'll be more songs featured on the broadcast. Putting this show together has been a real labour of love and I'm pretty rapt with the result. Be sure to listen on Sunday at 6pm.

there is always life on the beach

2006-06-08T21:32:00.000+12:00

Well my first official blog on this site is meant to be about the unofficial history of this eccentric little radio station located offshore of New Zealands major city Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf.
But as luck would have it I'm still debating just exactly where I should start that journey because once I do I'm afraid I wont know where to stop.
So in the interim I thought it would be nice to post some of the music that I have been playing on the Monday night BOB FORMAT DRIVE SHOW (BOB stands for Brilliant or Bad or whatever else you might want to attach to those 3 initials, just remember to keep it nice or if you cant be nice then be funny).

Here is a list then of tracks played Monday 5th Queens Birthday Weekend here in NZ.

Echo Beach - Martha & The Muffins
Widespread Panic - Airplane
Electra Made Me Blind - Everclear
Sunshine - The Outlaws
Girls Got Rhythm - AC DC
Best Looking Boys - The Promise Ring
You're All I Have - oops forgot the band
Five Women - Prince
Eyes Without A Face - Billy Idol
Us - Inxs
Obsession - Sugababes
We Run This - Missy Elliot
Phoenix Ignition - Thrice
Some Girls - Rolling Stones
Basketball Jones - Cheech & Chong
Lonely Street - Eddie Kirkland
Freedom Fries - Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation
Pearl Necklace - Z Z Top
Singers With One Name (comedy drop) - George Carlin
Finding You - The Go Betweens
Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams - The 69 Eyes
Music Is The Victim - Scissor Sisters

That finished the first two hours and at this point I then went into the next hour with one of my BOB specials, to date there have been 3, and the track listing that follows is Pt 2 of a special started the previous week that was songs that had the word one in their title and there was such an overwhelming amount of songs with just such a word, that I decided to make it a two parter with creative licence to come back to it with more parts as desired.
This series of specials over the next few weeks will be trying to play songs with the numbers one to nine in their titles and hopefully fill up an hour with good radio songs.

Part 1B Monday 5th June

One - Johnny Cash (God Rest His Soul)
The Lucky One - Alison Krauss & Union Station
One Room Country Shack - Johnny "Guitar" Watson
One More Song The Radio Won't Like - Kathleen Edwards
One Monkey - Gillian Welch
One Night Away - The Delays
One In A Million - Thomas Parkes (Kiwi)
One - Thievery Corp.
One In Ten - UB40
One Good Reason - The Swingers (Kiwi)
All Hands On The Bad One - Sleater-Kinney
One By One All Day - oops forgot the band
One Step Too Far - Faithless
One Note Song - Tenacious D

Counting the Beat - The Hunt Brings Us Life

2006-06-04T14:27:00.000+12:00

The feature album on this weeks Counting the Beat is The Hunt Brings Us Life, the new solo album from Samuel Flynn Scott of the Phoenix Foundation. Scott is the second PF member to release a solo album; Luke Buda also put out a good CD, Special Surprise, earlier in the year. Download tracks from the Buda album here.

Samuel Flynn Scott has been busy. As well as recording and releasing the solo album, he has been touring with The Phoenix Foundation and playing with his other band Bunnies on Ponies. Bunnies don't have any releases but there is video footage of them playing live. For more info on Scott, check out this television interview or this great spoof press release for The Hunt Brings Us Life by Russell Brown.

Of Scott's and Buda's albums my pick is Scott's The Hunt Brings Us Life, although I would recommend both to any fan of the Phoenix Foundation. Incidentally, I will also be featuring a rare PF track on the radio show. Buenos Dias is a cut from a little known EP the band put out in 2001 titled China Cove. That EP came out on Lovely Horse Recordings. The equine theme has continued, the fist PF album was titled Horse Power, while the second, Pegasus, featured a horse on the cover. The Phoenix Foundation have a nice website with both video and audio downloads.

Watch out for future posts - there are some great Counting the Beat specials on the way this month.

Hauraki Hoedown Highlights - The Old Ceremony

2006-05-24T10:41:00.000+12:00

Actually two highlights from tonights show one of which was following on from Bob's awesome 45 minute review of the Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt ouvre. I added a track by Tweedy's side project Loose Fur into that mix and a couple of rarities from Uncle Tupelo (I Wanna Destroy You - Gun 7") and a live Wilco that I got off the net. Bob had done his research and was filling in the history of the bands as he went along.

The song that really made an impression on me from tonight though was something that I'd only just listened to about an hour before going on air by a band called The Old Ceremony. Self described as "a pop-noir musical association from Chapel Hill, North Carolina figureheaded by songwriter/raconteur Django Haskins" the song was called "Blood and Oil". Lyrically reminiscient of a Nick Cave or Tom Waits composition it was a little out of the theme of my show but sufficiently Americana to warrant inspection. You can grab a copy of Blood and Oil from here.

Playlist for tonights show is posted on my blog, Casa de Country Mike.

PLANET L RADIO SHOW 20 5 06

2006-05-24T10:10:00.000+12:00

and on this week's PLANET L RADIO SHOW you heard:

DIVIDE & KREATE - SWEET JAQUELINE

got the show started with this little number mashing up FRANZ FERDINAND with THE EURYTHMICS of all people. who thinks this stuff up?

BRIGITTE BARDOT - ST. TROPEZ

the sound of france swinging circa 1971 from the original yeh-yeh girl. talked all over it, of course. what a difference 35 years can make though, eh?

JIMMI JAMMES - HOLLABACK GUN

another excellent bootleg from the new kid on the scene. GWEN STEFANI again mashed up with somebody or other. gwen, apparently, ain't no hollaback girl, but then - who is? i ain't no hollaback girl either but you don't catch me banging on about it all the time...

THE PIPETTES - YOU'RE KISSES ARE WASTED ON ME

from their lovely debut album WE ARE THE PIPETTES my new favourite band and aim to bring a bit of girl group glamour to the charts with a touch of THE SHANGRI-LA's, THE COOKIES, THE TEDDY BEARS thrown into the mix. they sing, they dance, they have clever updated post-feminist lyrics, they have polka-dot dresses. what more could you possibly want from a group? this is their 5th single and the album looks like being my album of the year. they're from my home town of BRIGHTON,ENGLAND and you can expect to hear a lot of them over the coming weeks on this show. check out THE PIPETTES on http://www.thepipettes.co.uk/
i think i'll just invite them over to do a gig - then we can all go see 'em.

PAYROLL - BLAME IT ON THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO

JACKSON 5 vs.THE THEME FROM THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO. clever little track this. is it okay to play michael jackson again only i've run out of harshly satirical things to say about him?

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - THE BLUES ARE STILL BLUE

current single from BELLE AND SEBASTIAN. my son JAY insists on this playing in the car when i pick him up from kindy. you can find it on the album THE LIFE PURSUIT which, after some plays on the phonograph at our house, i can now confidently say that this is the best album they've ever made. sweet, funny and clever - better than IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER even which has always been the bench mark by which we B&S fans judge their albums. B&S themselves never really cared for IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER, feeling that the acoustics were all wrong or something. there's a new live recording of the album available recorded at the royal albert hall where they give a definitive rendition of the album if you're interested.

DJ PAUL - CHENEY'S GOT A GUN

not the greatest bootleg ever but it made me laugh a lot and this sort of stuff needs to played all the time just to remind us what a bunch of crooks, liars and gangsters the current american administration is. let's see - bush has recently been found to be spying illegally on his own people (and has just made the man responsible for organising the illegal spying the new head of the CIA). rumsfield has been shown to be lying over the whole issue of iraq's weapons of mass destruction and starting an illegal war based on false evidence. oh, and cheney recently shot someone in the face...the leaders of the free world, ladies and gentlemen. sleep safe, now.
what did happen to the guy who got shot in the face anyway? the media strangely lost interest in the story. it's almost as if it never happened. strange that.

DJ MOULE - SOMEBODY SMACKED MY BITCH

THE KILLERS VS. THE PRODIGY of course and would get any party started, don't you think?

SEAN McCOLGAN - CRAZY DISCO

this week's GNARLS BARKLEY bootleg mash's up MIRWAIS with your barkley's. i think the mirwais track appeared in the film LAYER CAKE though god knows i sometimes make this stuff up.

TOM THUMB - HEY BULLDOG

the rather dull anecdote about this track is that it was actually a cover of a cover. record producer peter dawkins bought back a version from the uk and recorded TOM THUMB's version before THE BEATLES version was released locally...enough new zealand music month crazy anecdotes. i got a dog yesterday; it may end up being called smoochy moose face now that my suggestion of FARFISA was rejected out of hand by MRS PLANET L. anyway, played this one for him.

SUGABABES - I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR

still loving this but now that DJ SIMON's playing it on his show my work here is done.

THE GO!TEAM - BOTTLEROCKET

from the australia only release ARE YOU READY FOR MORE EP which is still on the turntable here at chez planet L.

THE BRUNETTES - MAFIOSO

from their debut album HOLDING HANDS, FEEDING DUCKS. DJ SIMON nearly caused a scene when this got stuck in the CD player of the new GRASSMOBILE last week. all sorted now. i understand from HARAUKAI MIKE that their tour in the states seems to have paid off because they've just signed to SUB POP. expect an album soon but don't lose sleep over it in giddy expectation, eh?

FRANZ FERDINAND - WHAT YOU WAITING FOR

like the stripped down JOSEPH K/FIRE ENGINES approach they bring to this cover. but you'll have already heard it on DJ SIMON's show so you'll know all about it.

HOT CHIP - THE BOY FROM SCHOOL

thought i'd give the album track an airing this week (as did my fellow DJ ON GRASS. honestly, all we do all day is mow lawns and talk music. except on saturday's when we play music. sometimes the distinction between our two shows is only inb our heads). you can find this on hot chip's new album THE WARNING. i hear he's touring america with STEREOLAB. wouldn't that be something if the tour got as far as NZ? with the pipettes too, i mean.

CANNONBALL JANE - SLUMBER PARTY

low fi sweety pop from everyone's favourite music teacher. been playing this for ages - it's finally been released a single but you ought go out and buy the album STREET VERNACULAR and let your mind wander amidst its joyous grooves. or something.

GO HOME PRODUCTIONS - DON'T STOP CHANGING

haven't played this for ages. this is an excellent mash-up from the man who more or less invented the genre (more or less) mashing up PAUL WELLER with S CLUB 7. the business.

GUILLEMOTS - WHO LEFT THE LIGHTS ON BABY

from the album FROM THE CLIFFS which upon repeated playsbecomes something of a joy. they try too hard, and all, but then i listen too hard so it all kinda balances out.

RICHARD CHEESE - HEY YA

well, you know.

PIZZICATO 5 - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 BARBIE DOLLS

a few years ago i embraced that whole tokyo retro-kitsch thing that was coming out of japan. PIZZICATO 5 must have made about 40 or 50 albums before calling it a day. nearly every album had something on it that was this good.

TOTOM - CLINT PEACHEASTWOOD

this one presumably went down a storm last week so i thought i'd play it again. GORILLAZ vs. THE STRANGLERS. very fine.

DJ ZEBRA - GOMM JAH DUB

GOMM vs. KING TUBBY. nuff said. who's GOMM? dunno. probably someone french, they usually are. check out the DJ ZEBRA site on http://www.djzebra.free.fr/ this is the guy who was responsible for that chemical brothers/franz ferdinand mash-up i was trying so hard to popularise a while back by playing it all the time.

LOO AND PLACIDO - RIGBY REGGAE

LOO AND PLACIDO mash-ups are like gold dust these days what with their site now being soley dedicated to merchandise they can sell you. this is from a couple of years back.

THE BEATLES - TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS

as remixed, fairly pointlessly, by SMR this works because he ups the sonic noodling whilst more or less leaving the song alone. you have to be careful tinkering with the beatles because people know and cherish the songs so well but these two work quite well for a rainy saturday afternoon.

ST. ETIENNE - WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE

for the life of me i still can't remember who did this first and i really, really should have remembered by now. anyone going to help me out with this one. anyway, i do remember seeing SARAH CRACKNEL and the boys perform this on TOP OF THE POPS years ago. she was wearing a sex pistols t-shirt and a pink boa and, to my mind, wiped the floor with all the wannabe starlets there. made me want to go home and be slinky with her. still does, actually.

CCC - PSYCHESMELLICA

mashing up THE SUPREMES' REFLECTIONS, RINGO STARR's IT DON'T COME EASY, THE ZOMBIES' TIME OF THE SEASON (FOR LOVE), LULU's TO SIR WITH LOVE and THE BEATLES's SAVOY TRUFFLE. genius, and a big hit with laurie. check out his site on www.mashups.blogspot.com

SLACKJAWEDLOCAL - SOUL EXPLORATION

THE KARMINSKY EXPERIENCE, who never really lived up to the early promise displayed in their DJ sets mashed with ERIC B AND RAKIM's I KNOW YOU GOT SOUL. more or less works.

IRN MINKY - CRAZY TOGETHER

played this a couple of weeks ago and MRS. PEPPERPOT liked it so thought i'd give it one more airing. BEYONCE vs PRIMAL SCREAM.

RIDE - I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT COMES FROM (THE APOLLO 11 REMIX)

big tune this. always got me on the dancefloor at CHEESY back in EXETER, UK back in the 90's. it was ANDY BELL's greatest desire to be in OASIS. can you imagine? did you see them on the cover of Q magazine recently. what a bunch of wankers. be careful of what you wish for, it might actually happen, which is exactly the kind of sagacious advice MR spock gives out on my final track this week

LEONARD NIMOY - SPOCK THOUGHTS

this can be found on the rare as anything THE TWO SIDES OF LEONARD NIMOY, released back in 1968. a better option for them that like a bit of STAR TREK is the SPACED OUT CD which presents the best of LEONARD NIMOY and WILLIAM SHATNER, both in fine form and both equally able to clear a room of people reluctant to leave simply through the medium of sound.

time to go. happy listening.

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - Neko Case

2006-05-16T10:24:00.000+12:00

Neko Case's offerings are getting progressively more refined as well as progressively more cryptic in some respects. Rather than letting her growing alt-country stardom go to her head (ala Ryan Adams), Case appears to be on a solid path of songwriter maturation backed up by collaborations with artists of notable caliber in her 'solo' offerings as well as in her side projects like The New Pornographers. "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" is her latest offering and features such artists as Bloodshot Records artist Kelly Hogan on backup vocals, Howe Gelb formerly of Giant Sand, and tracks with backup bands such as Calexico and the Sadies. This record is an ambitious and lyrically reflective statement by Case, a follow on from her critically aclaimed CD "Blacklisted" from 2002, the CD contains some incredible narrative flourishes from thinly veiled personal insights to deeply metaphorical meditations. I played a couple of tracks this Monday, Star Witness and Hold On, Hold On.

You can download a recent live Neko Case performance from NPR.org here or grab both Hold On, Hold On or the title track Fox Confessor Brings the Flood from this post over on the Aquariam Drunkard Blog.

THE PLANET L RADIO SHOW 13 - 5 - 06

2006-05-16T07:51:00.000+12:00

on this weeks Planet L radio show - in many ways very much a show of two halves, and of course, in as equally as many other ways, not a game of two halves at all, more of what you'd call a radio show on a rainy saturday afternoon...this is what i played:

THE SUGABABES - I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR

a killer track, it has to be said, though i didn't think they got the intro just right so i faded it in from the original by the ARTIC MONKEYS, of course, and it all kind of hung together. you can find this on the RED DRESS single; the sugababes, you gotta love 'em.

MILD EUPHORIA - ALGEBRA SPAGHETTI

talked all over it again

TEAM 9 - CRAZY TIMES

the first of this week's mash-ups and this week's only GNARLS BARKLEY bootleg, bought to you from australia's TEAM 9 mashing up GNARLS BARKLEY's 'CRAZY' with PRINCE's 'SIGN O' THE TIMES'. proved to be a big hit LAWRENCE NOIR's sidekick SILENT JAY who felt compelled to send in a text of appreciation - you could do this too by simply sending in a suitably enthusiastic message to 0210 599 288. believe me, a good text always goes down well with us at THE BEACH (99.4 FM, and all)

FRANZ FERDINAND - WHAT YOU LOOKING FOR

a stirling cover version of GWEN STEFANI's recent-ish single recorded live on the BBc. don't really care for gwen - kinda think she's a triumph of production over talent, but do like cover version's and mash-ups of her stuff. that'll be because i'm post-modern, me. and post-ironic. and drunk.

ARTY FUFKIN - HOLLABACK GIRLS FEEL GOOD

there - what did i tell you. GWEN STEFANI vs. GORILLAZ. it just works. last outing of this for a while so ihope you weren't distracted with your knitting or anything while i was playing it.

GO HOME PRODUCTIONS - DON'T HOLD BACK (SWEET JANE)

CHEMICAL BROTHERS vs. VELVET UNDERGROUND vs. ADINA HOWARD vs. MARRS vs. U2 vs. BLUR. genius. you can find this and many other mash-ups on www.mashculture.nl/english/mash.html

TOTOM - CLINT PEACHESWOOD

GORILLAZ vs. THE STRANGLERS of course and it just about works. my favourite mash-up of the week. mostly it's about making people smile, don't you think?

THE BRUNETTES - MARS LOVES VENUS

from 2004's MARS LOVES VENUS. is anyone gonna give them enough money to make another album, then? i'll buy it!

CANNONBALL JANE - AUTOMATIC KNOCKOUT

another track from the weird, lo-fi sugary pop album STREET VERNACULAR. it's like all your favourite bands wrapped up on one album - as long as your favourite bands are ST.ETIENNE,
THE GO! TEAM and THE RONETTE'S. what more could you want from an album?

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - THE BLUES ARE STILL BLUE

new single from this family's favourite popsters (imagine , if you will, a family sitting round a phonograph and singing along to pop songs from BELLE AND SEBASTIAN whilst sipping hot chocolate and you pretty much have the measure of tuesday night's here on Planet L).

ROLF HARRIS - TEACH 'EM TO SWIM

i came across this the other day and remembered that i'd grown up watching that on telly. included for your listening pleasure.

LENLOW - THE HARDER IT COMES

DOVES vs. DAFT PUNK. excellent track this and about time we heard something new from him. check out his website on www.luke.enlow.net

HOT CHIP - THE BOY FROM SCHOOL (EROL ALKAN'S EXTENDED MIX)

excellent track this and a big favourite of DJ SIMON's. expect to hear a track or two from the new HOT CHIP album 'THE WARNING' next week.

GORILLAZ - EL MANANA (METRONOMY REMIX)

i think there's supposed to be one of those little squiggles over that first 'n'. it's good this, but i think you need a rainy day for it to really work on the radio. lucky for me it was raining then. you too, i guess.

CCC - LOVELY AND EASY

COMMODORE'S vs GOLDFRAPP. from the download only EP 'LOVELY AND EASY' which you can find at www.mashups.blogspot.com

GUILLEMOTS - WHO LEFT THE LIGHTS OFF, BABY?

from their debut album FROM THE CLIFFS, a glorious mixture of the BEACH BOYS and COLDPLAY. imagine that if you will, and then seek out the album. in a year that has so far failed to produce anything worth really jumping up and down about GUILLEMOTS are worth a tap of your foot. did you notice it was GUILLEMOTS and not "THE" GUILLEMOTS? i mention it so that you don't make an ass of yourself in the record shop...

THE GO!TEAM - WE LISTEN EVERYDAY

from the australia only release 'ARE YOU READY FOR MORE' ep. did you see them on the jools holland show the other night? they blew both me and mrs. Planet L away.

DJ MOULE - FOXY BREAK BEAT

JIMI HENDRIX vs. PROPELLERHEADS and i'm certain there's some CHEMICAL BROTHER'S beats in there somewhere too. what it's all about.

AUDIO SHRAPNEL - MR JOHNSON HI-FI

lovely tune this, and the one that drew most text responses. JACK JOHNSON meets THE MR.MEN. as lovely as it sounds.

MIDFIELD GENERAL - REACH OUT

from the album GENERALISATION. cool, slinky and sexy vibes from an underrated album.

FUTURO - BREATHE WITH ME 'TIL DAWN

one of my favourite mash-up artists. JUDY TZUKE vs. PINK FLOYD. who'd have thought? brilliant track this, and played out especially for the lovely mrs. Planet L.

GNARLS BARKLEY - ST. ELSEWHERE

the title track from the GNARLS BARKLEY album and your opportunity to see what the fuss is all about. always keen to keep up with what's going down ,me.

LOVE GROCER feat. CHESHIRE CAT - A LITTLE VERSION

i'm not going to bullshit you. i like dub as much as the next stoner but i played this track because it was raining.

ST. ETIENNE - HOBART PAVING

a beautiful track this, which you can find on the excellent album SO TOUGH. this album is possibly the most perfect pop album in the world ('pop' being the musical equivalent of falling in love with the girl in the trouser shop for almost 10 whole minutes - this album is just like that). once again i played this track because it was raining. a big hit with MRS. PEPPERPOT apparently.

SEAN MCCLOGGAN - MONGOLIAN DESERT MIX

knocked together whilst waiting for a plane in the mongolian desert, apparently. a 15 minute mix that doesn't feature any mongolians but does feature PRINCE. once again, downbeat vibes for a rainy saturday afternoon.

THE MAGIC NUMBERS - THERE IS A LIGHT AND IT NEVER GOES OUT

and speaking of downbeat vibes for a rainy saturday afternoon, an impeccable cover version of THE SMITHS most perfect number 1 that never was (on account of morrissey wanting BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN as the single) THE MAGIC NUMBERS make this track their own without losing anything from the wonderful original, and a fairly good way of ending the show on what was, essentially, a wet and dreary saturday afternoon. expect to hear this on MRS PEPPERPOT's show soon.

so anyway, MRS. PLANET L has just put forward a pretty cogent argument for me being in bed with her rather that sitting alone here with a bottle of red wine so - enough.

Live on The Beach

2006-05-15T21:27:00.000+12:00

Our live NZ Music Month series has got off to a great start. First up was Katy Soljak (thats her in the picture), one of the island's most accomplished musicians. She played two new songs that she has written to accompany a screenplay about a kiwi songwriter running off to Texas. Her set was great, despite the fact that she was suffering from a nasty white tailed spider bite, that had caused her to be hospitalised the week before the show. Katy was joined by Genevieve Cohen, a student from Waiheke High. Genevieve has a great voice, and they sounded particularly good together on a cover of the crazy hippy anthem All Around the World, originally performed by Blerta. You can read all about Blerta on this fantastic site about NZ music of the 60s and 70s.

Genevieve was back for the second week of Live on The Beach for a solo performance. Ocne again she was fantastic. My sound engineer skills, however, are far from outstanding. Despite my failings Genevieve pulled of a cracking set, concluding with a Neil Finn cover. Look out for her at the Waiheke Jam at Cats Tango on Sundays.

What's coming up? Who knows! Organising musicians is like herding cats. Check this site and the station for details.

We are recording the Live on The Beach performances and replaying them on Island Life the following Saturday morning so you all have a second chance to hear these great acts.

Planet L Radio show 6th May

2006-05-09T14:54:00.000+12:00

Track listing:

ECHOBELLY - GREAT THINGS
played this one for my daughter daisy who was 6 this week. always liked the lines: "i wanna do great things, don'twanna compromise, i wanna know what life is, i wanna try everything" and thought it was a suitably edifying track todedicate to her. echobelly, of course, were among the also-rans of brit-pop that flared so brightly and briefly backin the late 90's. i expect that they've all moved into A & R work these days. or driving mini-cabs.

MILD EUPHORIA - ALGEBRA SPAGHETTI
i always talk over this one which is a pity because it's a disarmingly sweet choon and can be found on the album ALGEBRA SPAGHETTI released on SIESTA RECORDS. i find that you always need a good choon to talk over at the beginningof a show and for the last few weeks or so (and for the next few i expect) this is it. one day i will play it allwithout saying a word.

CANNONBALL JANE - HEY HEY ALRIGHT .
i love cannonball jane. she's a cross between ST.ETIENNE, THE GO! TEAM and THE RONNETTES which is pretty much all ittakes to get played on my show. she teaches music to infants in brooklyn n.y. and her album STREET VERNACULAR is oneof my finds of the year. lo-fi sugary pop - to be treasured.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - WHITE COLLAR BOY
wry glitter pop from their new album THE LIFE PURSUIT which took a few plays to get into actually. the secret was toleave it in the car stereo for a few weeks and before too long me and the kids were all singing along on the schoolrun. altogether now..."You're not too ugly you can kiss me if you like!"

ARTY FUFKIN - HOLLABACK GIRLS FEEL GOOD
the first of todays bootlegs mashing up the ever popular GORILLAZ with GWEN STEFANI. you can find this and manyother links to some good little mash-up sites by going to www.bootie.tv/home/bb/ what is a hollaback girl anyway?

GNARLS BARKLY - CRAZY
dj dangermouse and cee-lo. i don't know who cee-lo is but dj dangermouse sprung into notoriety with the release ofhis bootleg THE GREY ALBUM mashing up the beatle's white album with jay-z's black album. it'a a good idea but it'snot something that you'd ever want to listen to twice. but it caught the ear of damon albarn and so he produced theexcellent album by the GORILLAZ last year. CRAZY is the first single to be released from the album ST. ELSEWHERE andhas been number 1 in england and possibly the rest of the world for weeks. as has the album. it's alright; veryelegantly produced. bit too soulful for me but has a few psychedelic flourishes in the studio to keep me interested.i play three mash-ups of this track later on in the show.

MATT HITE - MATERIAL MICKEY
mashes up madonna's material girl with toni basil's mickey. always going to be a winner. one of those tracks whereyou think: that was so obvious - why didn't i think of that? probably becuase you've got better things to do withyour time, i expect. bootleggers don't get out much.

APEBOY - ORINOCCO BITCH (LENLOW RE-EDIT)
the prodigy vs. enya, of course. lenlow is one of my favourite bootleggers and he claims that this was one of hisfavourite mash-ups but just needed a bit of re-jigging with the arabic wailing from the original prodigy track putback in. always raises a smile this one, from me anyway.

CCC - SLAVE BACK
one of five new tracks released by ccc this past couple of weeks. this one mashes grace jones with moloko. not ahuge fan of grace jones but am a big fan of ccc whose work is more interesting than a lot of others because he'shappy to plunder pops history for his tracks (most bootleggers just work around the latest beyonce single). his mostnotable success is his mash-up of the beatles album revolver which he mashed up as REVOLVED. find him athttp://www.mashups.blogspot.com/

THE GO! TEAM - WE LISTEN EVERYDAY
avaiable on the australia only tour ep ARE YOU READY FOR MORE released last year. i like this one - it's shouty.

HOT CHIP - THE BOY FROM SCHOOL (EROL ALKEN'S EXTENDED MIX)
it's the track they're all talking about. well me and dj simon are anyway, and mrs pepperpot and lawrence noirpopped round the other night and they were talking about it too so that kind of amounts to the same thing. anyway,expect to hear this one coming at you from all over the shop for the next few months. this is perfect coming upmusic for sunny days and late nights.

THE SHORTWAVE SET - IS IT ANY WONDER?
from the excellent album THE DEBT COLLECTION this was one of my favourite albums of last year. made entirely fromsamples culled from the sort of records found in the back of dusty charity shops on a rainy day the shortwave setquickly became my favourite band in the world for days. there are echoes of stereolab and broadcast in their soundbut that's probably why i took them so quickly to my heart. this particular track is probably the best thing iplayed today so i hope you got to hear it and you didn't have the kettle on or anything while i was playing it. iunderstand that they've just remixed a track by moby but i expect dj simon can tell you all about that.

THE CHILLS - KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD
i bought this the week i left home. i played it constantly in my tiny cold bedsit while i day-dreamt of bettertimes. 25 years later i get to play it on my radio show on waiheke island. just goes to show something or other,doesn't it?

IRN MINKY - CRAZY TOGETHER
in which beyonce and primal scream get mashed up. a big hit with mrs pepperpot this one so hopefully it will get abit of air play on her show too.

CHEEKY BOY - CRAZY AVALANCHES
the first of the show's three gnarls barkly mash-ups. this one takes the avalanches 'frontier psychiatrist' andslips it effortlessly over the gnarls barkly track. what with dj dangermouse making good from the bootleg world it'sno wonder everyone is chomping at the bit to get their hands on his stuff. these three bootlegs are all so good icouldn't choose between them so i just thought i'd play them all.

ARTY FUFKIN - CRAZY LOGIC
in which the track get's mashed with supertramp's 'the logical song'. genius.

DJ SCHMOLLI - CRAZY BABY IT'S YOU
my personal favourite - this time bringing the ronnettes to play. this is why people should be allowed to makebootlegs - they can bring joy to a cluttered heart.

GO HOME PRODUCTIONS - DON'T HOLD BACK (SWEET JANE)
another argument for the continued existence of bootleggers - this is one of those tracks that makes you think:"wow! i'd never have thought of that" but then GHP is the man. wossname's lyrics from the chemical brothers'galvanise' over the soundtrack to the velvet underground's sweet jane. genius. could do without u2 joining in buti'm sure they just kinda fitted - what are you going to do?

JACK PLANCK - MILKMAN VS. THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD
from the strange and lovely album TO HELL WITH YOU I'LL MAKE MY OWN PEOPLE jack planck is one of JACKNIFE LEE'S sideproject. jacknife lee recently-ish produced vertigo by u2 but i don't jold that against him - i just mention that togive him a bit of background for you just in case you don't know who i'm talking about but i don't suppose that hasentirely cleared it up for you.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - BLACK AND WHITE UNITE
been playing this in the car all the time lately - this is from their album STORYTELLING which is the soundtrack tothe TODD SOLONDZ movie which i never saw - got vey mixed reviews apparently, you either like his stuff or you don't.not my favourite B&S album but possibly my favourite B&S track - sugary sweet and slightly melancholic and a choonyou can hum til the cows come home (should you care to)

JACKIE LEE - RUPERT THE BEAR
another track for daisy - well what's the point of having your own radio show if you can't play songs for yourdaughter's birthday. not that i needed much excuse to play this gem from 1971. have you noticed that she sings'rupert the bear' when in fact, as mrs planet L will tell you, his name is actually rupert bear.

THE LOLLIPOP TRAIN - JOYFUL
just what it says on the label. the soundtrack to skipping through meadows on a summers days while sniffing atdandelions and possibly getting a few cart-wheels in. beautiful and a big favourite of laurie's from the sunsetcafe.

THE BRUNETTES - WHALE IN THE SAND
one of my favourite kiwi bands. i expect they'll have an album out any day now.CCC - LOVELY AND EASYin which the commodores are mashed up with goldfrapp's 'lovely head'. great track this.

CCC - SHE'S SLIPPING INTO SOMETHING
as is this. it's always tricky mashing up the beatles because the originals are just too engrained on theconsciousness but this is a fine, fine track. the beatles 'she's leaving home' mashed with kinobe'd "slip intosomething more comfortable'. i don't know why 3 tracks from ccc got played today. just kinda had that special planetL vibe i was after i suppose.

SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS - ISABELLA, KEEP RIDING THE ROAD TO THE SEA
the soft hearted scientists produced my favourite album of last year with UNCANNY TALES FROM THE EVERYDAYUNDERGROWTH. psychedelic pastoral whimsy from wales this album has so many fine songs it lived on my stereo over thesummer.

JIM NOIR - TURN YOUR FROWN INTO A SMILE
because that's what we do here on the planet L radio show - turn frowns into smiles. this track is taken from hisdebut album THE TOWER OF LOVE which combines more whimsical noodlings with beach boy harmonies making it right up mystreet.

tell you what - this took ages to do. i may not be as proficient at this as i at first hoped. expect something new next week but who know's, eh? happy listening...

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - The Black Keys

2006-05-09T09:44:00.000+12:00

Bob started it all out with the radio equivalent of a treatable neurosis, by playing nearly 3 hours worth of songs with the word 'radio' in them. I heard a Monty Python track, "I Bet They Won't Play this Song on the Radio" which I'd never have expected to ever hear on the radio - but that's the Beach for you... my pick for the night though was one by the blues unit the Black Keys.

I've been playing tracks off this 6 song CD by the Black Keys for a couple of weeks now, but I think that the track I played this monday, My Mind is Ramblin' is really the one i'm holding on to. It's a fuzzy hard-picked guitar groove with a hook that the White Stripes can only dream about at night. From a CD called Chulahoma, the Akron, OH two-piece The Black Keys on the Fat Possum label pay tribute to the late Junior Kimbrough the first artist to record for Fat Possum. Kimbrough was friend of the late R.L. Burnside - another Fat Possum label mate who sadly passed away earlier this year. The Keys stripped down drum and guitar sound pay homage to this North Mississippi Hill Country sound that seems to finally be finding it's place alongside much of the more famed blues locales and sounds. I also played the brief phone message from Kimbrough's wife that thanks the Keys for doing such a fine tribute to late husband - nice addition.

Download: Meet Me in the City by the Black Keys.

For a full list of what I played, see Casa de Country Mike.

DJ Simon - The Mix and Mash Radio Show - 7th May 2006

2006-05-07T00:24:00.000+12:00

Soulwax - Slowdance
A fabulous opener from my favourite Belgian brothers Soulwax (AKA 2manydjs). This track is taken from a recent 'This is Radio Soulwax' CD available with last months Mixmag - Electro Techno, bombastic rock to disco and chunky swirling gutars and saxophones - Blindin'

For more info on Soulwax/2manydjs go to http://www.soulwax.com/

TRACK OF THE WEEK

Arthur Baker ft Tim Wheeler - Glow the Freelance Hellraiser Guitarmageddon remix
I've been playing the original version of this for a couple of weeks and stumbled on this Freelance Hellraiser remix when I was looking for his first (official) release 'Pound for Pound' (which I still haven't found yet). Glad I did too! There's a great Hooky bassline, slashing guitars and the Ash singer’s imperfect vocals. This could almost be a mid-’80s New Order single and the Freelance Hellraiser works his electro flair.

Lindstrom - Another station
Another Station is a balearic disco-number with cheesy early-house-piano, 8bit bontempi-drums and lush flanger-strings, perfect for those really late nights/early mornings. There's a great Todd Terje remix of ths kicking around aswell that picks up the speed and incorporates harmony-vocals and a new totally irresistible bass-line.

Scissor Sisters v Fischerspooner v Pet Shop Boys - We need a war (DJ Earworm Bootleg)
A quite brilliant mash-up from DJ Earworm incorporating the Scissor sistors 'Filthy Gorgeous' and Fischerspooner's 'We Need A War' with a smattering of the Petshop Boys 'It's a sin' - A brilliant piece of Bedroom Bootleging!

Go to http://www.djearworm.com/ to download this and other DJ Earworm Mash-ups

Velvet Underground vs Chemical Brothers - Dont hold back Sweet Jane (GHP)
Oh I've gone bootleg crazy this week! This is class from the most prolific and commercially succesful bootlegger Mark Vidler the man behind Go Home Productions.

This mash-up fuses .."The Chemical Brothers 'Galvanise' vocals with Velvet Undergrounds 'Sweet Jane' for the main part, held together with all manner of elements that made up MARRS 'Pump Up The Volume'. Adina Howard pops in for some overused acapella duties, whilst U2 and a 'blink and you'll miss it' Blur sample surface for some air towards the end."

Go to http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/ to download this and other Go Home Productions tracks.

Cat Power and Karen Elson - I love you (me either)
Fifteen years after his death, Serge Gainsbourg lives again with the release of 'Serge Gainsbourg Revisited' bringing together original muses and younger fans to rework his best songs. This is the first time that Gainsbourg's lyrics have been officially translated into English.

Gainsbourg is revered in France as the nation's greatest popular musician, but in Britain he is perhaps best remembered for the 1969 seduction classic, Je t'aime moi non plus and this Cat Power and Karen Elson track, 'I Love you - me either' is translated directly. Excellent it is too!

Daft Punk v Hard-Fi - Hard To Boot (Dunproofin)
Yet another mash-up ths time from Dunproffin'. Daft Punk's Digital love has always been a Saturday morning favourite for me and it mixes perfectly here with vocal's from Hard-Fi's Hard to beat!

Headman - Moisture (feat Anton Spivac)
Swiss born, Berlin-based Robi Insinna, a.k.a. Headman, is a nu-disco producer on the Gomma label. While his music has a very simple, analog-sounding backdrop like a lot of minimalish electro house, Headman is a master of meticulously placed layers of coy synths, handclaps, and cowbells as with here on this track featuring Anton Spivac on vocals.

Moby - Dream about me (The shortwave set pick 'n mix)
Planet L's been bangin' on about the Shortwave set for a while now which the only reason i got hold of this Moby track. Very good it is too!

Franz Ferdinand ft Jane Birkin - A song for sorry angel
A second track from the Serge Gainsbourg Revisited CD featuring Serge's old muse Jane Birkin.

The 25 Minute mix

Hot Chip - Over and over (solid groove remix)
Cut Copy - Saturdays (Headman Remix) From 2005
LCD Soundsystem - Disco Infiltrator (fks Infiltrated vocal mix)

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - Josh Ritter

2006-05-02T13:10:00.000+12:00

I usually post the playlists for my show over on the Casa de Country Mike blog but I didn't write the songs down last night as I was recording it for a potential podcast, so figured I'd have another listen and post later. But my highlight for the show last night (apart from Willy B. making me go to dead air to fix the horrible buzz we were experiencing - but big ups to him for fixing it!) had to be the two tracks by Josh Ritter that I played, Good Man and Thin Blue Flame.

Ritter's "The Animal Years" is a lyrically complex meditation on well ... the usual subjects, but it's Ritter's rich voice and some awesome production (from a guy who's produced both Mighty Mouse and Iron & Wine) that make this offering stand above many of the similarly styled singer/songwriterish releases of late. I played the pop sounding Good Man and the 9 minute opus Thin Blue Flame. The opening track, Girl in the War is really what sold the album for me originally and you can download that one and Thin Blue Flame from the Josh Ritter Fansite, here: http://www.dougrice.net/joshritter_audio.html

DJ Simon - The Mix and Mash Radio Show - 29th April

2006-05-01T16:10:00.000+12:00

TRACK OF THE WEEK

Hot Chip - And I was a Boy From School (Erol Alkan's Extended rework) - Released April 2006

Seems to me that Erol Alkan is trying to 'out DFA' the DFA on this fantastic rework from Hot Chip. The track starts out all moody, bleepy, glitchy electronica with trippy vocals and grows into a low-fi balearic crescendo (if there is such a thing). It is magnificent in so many ways and should appeal to the clubheads out there just as much as the mushroom chompers of this world - Blindin'!

Headman - Moisture (feat Anton Spivac) - Released April 2006

Serious action from Headman, a big player in the new electro disco movement! Moisture is the second single from Headman's acclaimed CD 'On' released on Gomma Germany last month. Given Headman's electro leanings this is a suprisingly up-beat post punk, disco-not-disco, guitar driven track.

Goldfrap - Slide In (DFA Remix) - Released December 2005

Man I love this tune so much, even more than I did on my last posting! and it fills 15 minutes of my show too which is always a bonus! :-) There's something really special about this remix and I’m really feeling the 'Disco DFA' vibe! On another note, given that when it came out in December last year only 100 copies were pressed, I'm rather pleased that I have a copy - What - You mean an mp3 doesn't count? Bugger!

LCD Soundsystem v PartyBen - PartyBen Is Playing at my house - Available online 2006

A great Bootleg this from Party Ben mixing up the LCD Soundsytsem's Daft Punk is playing at my house with Gorillaz, Kate Lenlow, MC Hammer amongst others - Mashup's are dead my arse!!!

For more bootlegs from Party Ben go to: http://www.partyben.com/

Flaming Lips - Yeah yeah yeah song - Released April 2006

Fantastic new and very cheerful single from the Flaming Lips from the new 'At War With the Mystics ' CD, their the twelfth studio album. It seems they've now moved away from the digital sounds that dominated their 2002 release 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' and have taken on a more experimental, organic sound described by leader Coyne as "space-age jazz and progressive Dixieland" - It can't be ignored!

Kylie Minogue - Slow (Chemical Brothers Remix) - Released 2003

An excellent remix of Kylie's Slow from the Chems. Given that Kylie was going through a bit of an Electronica phase at the time of release it's hardly surpising that this glitchy club version of 'Slow' works so well! Good old Kylie, you gotta love her - And such a nice arse too!

Go to http://www.chimeric.demon.co.uk/diversity/articles/airbrush.html for further information about Kylie's arse!

Spank Rock - Rick Rubin (xxxchange electro remix) - Released March 2006

An ode to the bearded Zenmeister of maximum noise-creation, This track 'Rick Rubin' is in fact Spank Rock’s very own, somewhat cryptic brag suggesting that, just as Rick Rubin transformed modern music in the mid-eighties, now Spank Rock are going to do the same for the mid-noughties. The track itself has tonnes of squelching bass, bizarre latin percussion, talking drums, random electronic squeaking, robot voices, and a rhyme from Spank Rock himself that skips through concepts and ideas at such speed that it leaves you dizzy.

Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen (Justice Clique Edit) - Released March 2006

A brilliant re-working of Franz Ferdinand's current single from one of my favourite remixmeisters!!! Some people (ie. Planet L) say it never really gets going - Tosh!!!! ;-)

Coldcut - True Skool - Released April 2006

The new single from Coldcut's latest album 'Sound Mirrors' out on Ninja Tune records.

The DJ Simon 25 Minute Mix

Lifelike and Kris Menace - Discopolis
Lindstrom - Another day (Todd Terje remix)
Tiga - Far from home (DFA remix)

This just in:

DFA Records have finally released 'The DFA - The Remixes Chapter One' this month. The CD collects 9 of the DFA Remixes done since their inception in 2001, starting with the first ever, "Deceptacon" by Le Tigre. The full track listing is as follows:

1. Deceptaon - Le Tigre
2. Mars Arizona - Blues Explosion
3. The Boxer - The Chemical Brothers
4. Another Excuse - Soulwax
5. Dance To The Underground - Radio 4
6. Emerge - Fischerspooner
7. Dare - Gorillaz
8. Orange Alert - Metro Area
9. (Just Like We) Breakdown - Hot Chip

Volume 2 will be released sometime in September

For more info go to: http://www.dfarecords.com/

That's it for this week, more next!!

Waiheke Musicians to Play LIVE ON THE BEACH

2006-04-30T09:31:00.000+12:00

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

2006-04-23T14:20:00.000+12:00

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

2006-04-18T15:49:00.000+12:00

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

2006-04-15T11:43:00.000+12:00

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

2006-04-14T17:48:00.000+12:00

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

2006-04-12T14:09:00.000+12:00

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

Our Schedule

2006-04-01T10:57:00.000+12:00

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

2006-04-01T10:25:00.000+12:00

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!