The Tierney Sutton Band
Screenplay
BFM Jazz
Formed around the delicate, classy vocals of the lead singer The Tierney Sutton Band features some great instrumentalists to help shape the sound – bassists Trey Henry and Kevin Axt, drummer/percussionist Ray Brinker and pianist Christian Jacob. They’ve made some great albums and are not opposed to a theme-record including a recent stab at some Sting covers called – rightly enough – The Sting Variations. Read More
‘Til Wrong Feels Right: Lyrics and More
Iggy Pop
Clarkson Potter
This new volume of Iggy Pop’s lyrics updates the previous collection (which went up to 1999, documenting the first 30 years of his work). Here now we go up to his most recent album – two further decades. Read More
Hell In A Cell 2019
WWE
Madman
It seems funny to even be discussing this Hell In A Cell event after that fucking ending! So I’ll start there. Chants of refund and rematch, boos galore and then chanting “AEW” – which is All Elite Wrestling (basically Ring of Honor via TNA for 2019/20).
So what went wrong? Read More
A low point
was when I told
my folks I had to
go to the school in
the weekend to do
some work and left them
in town for a couple of hours.
I went and sat on the steps
and smoked some ciggies,
then bought some gum from
the store and met up with them
a couple of hours after
‘clearing the decks’.
That was a low point alright.
It was the low point.
Or at least I like to think.
I like to hope.
But we will never admit
our lowest point, because
to admit to it – is to know it.
And to know it is to not
be in it.
For many, our lowest point
will never – truly – arrive.
We’re lucky.
In that way, at
least.
Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains (2019)
It feels a little odd to have this on vinyl – but it was a must. At one point this was very nearly my album of the year; certainly one of my most played in 2019. But then what happened happened. And that meant that I stopped playing it – and it would have felt like a bit of a cash-in or something to declare it the Album of the Year. Maybe I’m ready to start listening to this again (I did include it in my overall list of great album I reviewed last year). Purple Mountains was announced – as project – as album – as the return of David Berman (he of Silver Jews previously – as well as poetry and cartoons and other musical projects). And then the album came out and was brilliant. Instantly. I reviewed it for the radio and then wrote about it gushingly. And within a few weeks of the release and the hype David Berman took his own life. Which made those darkly humourous depression odes on the album just a little hard to take, or at least you didn’t want to seem like you were reveling in them. But I have the album now on vinyl and though I’ve only played it once it is a must-have. Something that has to be there in the collection. And something I’ll find my way back to with time. A brilliant album – from a tortured genius. A sad story. Such great (sad, bleak) songs…
The Surprise Party
Direction: Conrad Newport (written by Dave Armstrong)
Circa Theatre; Circa One (January 18 – February 15)
In The Surprise Party – Dave Armstrong’s biting new satire – a minority party is elevated far beyond their station due to a series of scandals rocking the bigger players. We first join the action on election night and then check in again on how the party is doing the next morning and year later and then finally in a year again after that. Read More
The great American jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath has died, aged 93. Heath recorded and performed with so many legendary names – Miles Davis, John Coltrane – he built lasting relationships as a sideman and collaborator with the likes of Milt Jackson, Art Farmer and Kenny Dorham among others. And he was a leader for well over a dozen records.
The other important, enduring, endearing set of records he made was with his brothers Percy and Albert – as The Heath Brothers Jimmy (saxophone), Percy (bass) and Albert “Tootie” (drums) released at least ten albums together. Read More
Writer’s block is
something writers hide behind
to make themselves seem more
important. There’s no block.
You just write right through it.
Good work, bad work and everything
in between – you get it down and let
anyone else decide what they think.
You’ll know already.
But you’ll possibly be doing it to
keep moving, to maybe generate
a new idea, to not get stuck – at the
very least.
Because no matter how tragic or
romantic – or both – writer’s block
might sound
it is false. It is a lie. It is safe.
Better off ploughing through. Since
there are good and bad days in any
job or activity.
I already know what I think
of this.
And you couldn’t
possibly change
my mind.
(Unless of course
you said you loved it).
Los Lobos, Will The Wolf Survive? [Single] (1985)
I probably didn’t really need this – but when has need really ever been the case with records and collections and especially with record-collections?! I wanted it. I wanted to have this. So I got it. Because I love Los Lobos and I’m also a bit of a sucker for a novelty like a “ltd edition” version – so here is a 10” vinyl single of Wolf – but it’s a remix version with live recordings of a couple of classic tracks for a double b-side. That’s me! Had to have it. So I do. And it’s great. Because it’s Los Lobos. What a band!
Devil’s Elbow
ID [ep]
Hit Your Head Music
If you like when Steve Earle really rocks out or those final albums from Joe Strummer when he was fronting the The Mescaleros then check out the latest EP from Hawke’s Bay band, Devil’s Elbow. Actually, while we’re at it, can someone give them a long-service award. They’ve been making music – of increasing quality – since 2007; in the social media era that’s like a quarter-century already. Read More
A Traveller’s Guide to Turkish Dogs
Direction: Jonathan Price (written by Barnaby Olson & Company)
Circa Theatre; Circa Two (January 17 – February 8)
This is a repeat-season, but the play is retitled, reworked and though I didn’t see it 18 months or so ago in its earlier incarnation at BATS it’s clear that this is tighter, sharper – there’s such obvious skill on display from the opening moments. Read More
Thomas Newman
1917 [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
Sony Classical
Thomas Newman long ago proved himself as one of the safest sets of hands in the film-scoring trade. Need your film scored? Need a bloody good job? Well, you’d call any of the Newmans of course, it’s the family trade but Thomas, from the early 2000s, has been never less than quality – and he is a master of the careful, thoughtful integration of traditional strings and moody new shapes from synths and electronics. Subtle, wise. He hasn’t made a clanger. Read More