Independent Music New Zealand – May News Massive congratulations to Smashproof (ak Deach, Tyree and Young Sid) whose track Brother is now into its
eleventh consecutive week leading the Singles pack, a new longevity record for a local act. Smashproof now match Whitney Houston’s 1992/93 hit I Will Always Love You and its 11-week consecutive 1 reign, the two tracks now second-equal only to New Zealand’s all-time Singles Chart champ, Boney M’s 1978 14-week haul 1 Rivers Of Babylon / Brown Girl In The Ring. It’s Friday, the next track from ‘The Weekend’, also took highest new entry honours on the previous week’s Singles Chart last week. If you want to catch them live, Smashproof perform at Manukau Square on May 23 as part of the ‘Manukau Celebrates Music Month’ concert series. Also featuring in the series are Crossbreed, One Sound, Oceania Storm and Cydel. The website of Luke Buda (the Phoenix Foundation), specialsurprise.co.nz, has been included in the Favourite Website Awards’ (FWA) top 50 websites of 2008. The site was created by Wellington interactive advertising agency Resn, and was shortlisted from all 365 of the FWA’s Sites of the Day in 2008. The Favourite Website Award (FWA) for innovative web design has more than one million visitors each month, and was named the top web award in the world in the Chicago Tribune’s ‘World Wide Web Awards Award’, beating the likes of the Webby Awards. Specialsurprise.co.nz is also a finalist in the prestigious One Show Interactive Awards in New York on 4 May, competing against interactive campaigns by brands including Nike, Diesel, Nokia, Burger King and Nintendo. In the last 12 months four websites created by Resn have been selected as FWA ‘Sites of the Day’, including sites for 26000 Vodka and fellow IMNZers Minuit. The Parachute Band have recently come home from a four week stint in South Africa, with a short stop in Perth on the way over. They kicked off the tour in Bloemfontein, playing at Christian Revival Church (CRC)’s Young Lions Men’s Conference, and then went on a week-long tour of all the CRC churches (in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Kimberley) traveling around with Pastor At Boshoff and his crew. The tour had different line-up from the past two years: with Simon Moore (guitars) and Al Wood (keys) having moved on, they added new keyboardist, Matt Scarlet. Good friend Rapture Ruckus also went as support act/sound mixer. Auckland Museum has joined forces with the likes of Tiki Taane, Nathan Haines and Don McGlashan to create the Sonic Museum project, which has resulted in a series of new musical tracks inspired by galleries at Auckland Museum. Reinterpreted galleries include the World War 2 Hall of Memories, Ancient Worlds, the Oceans Gallery and Maori Court visitors to Auckland Museum can hear the tracks from Thursday May 7 by donning a special set of headphones. Reb Fountain hits the road this May, playing music and travelling the countryside in kiwi camper style along with Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters, as part of his Marvellous Year Tour. Reb will be performing songs from her recently released album ‘Holster’, along with new tunes and some oldies from days gone by, and she’ll be performing with her Bandits for select shows. There are a multitude of New Zealand Music Month celebrations happening around the country that you can participate in or watch and listen to via the various media available. Award winning singer/songwriter and one of New Zealand’s top boogie woogie piano players, Wayne Mason, along with Cameron Crawford, held a ‘duelling piano’ performance at Wellington Railway Station on May 1st. Real Groovy Auckland and Wellington have a whole bunch of instores – amongst many others you can catch Murder Chord, Dear Times Waste, Smashproof, Johnny Barker, Harbour City Electric, Cassette, Hannah Howes (check out her new website too: hannahhowes.com), Hikoikoi and Rosy Tin Teacaddy. Jason Kerrison, along with a host of others, is helping teach celebrities how to play guitar thanks to Juice TV on May 24 Jordan Luck is inviting people along to Skycity to jump on the band wagon and strum along to a Kiwi favourite, Why Does Love Do This To Me, in an attempt to form New Zealand’s biggest band and make history and on May 27 Juice are holding a huge (invitation only) concert at Skycity featuring Josh Leys, The Checks, Anna Coddington, Boh Runga, Nathan King, Clap Clap Riot, Autozamm and others. Te Papa features live performances throughout May from Pacific Curls, Big Belly Woman and more all month. In Christchurch you can catch lunchtime concerts from the likes of Flip Grater, The Oakley Grenell Trio and Craig Smith and the Bonehouse Band and on May 23 is Chill on the Terrace with dDub and more.
CHART has released ‘CHARTDISC Volume 1 2009’, a sampler CD featuring a few bands that over the past twelve months have generated a bit of a buzz in Christchurch and beyond. It comes in an eco-friendly CD wallet and includes Clap Clap Riot, Tiger Tones, The Insurgents, Minisnap, Kimo and The Enright House amongst others. This leads in to the celebration that is CHARTFEST, Christchurch’s largest annual all ages indoor music festival and industry expo celebrating NZ Music Month, happening in the Town Hall complex on May 29. Alongside music industry stalls and seminars you can catch performances from Solaa, Nathan King, Clap Clap Riot, The Eastern, Ragamuffin Children, The Harbour Sessions and more live. Say hi to IMNZ while you’re there too – you can catch us sharing a stand with the Music Managers’ Forum.