Putting NZ on the MAP

Late in 2008 I was emailed by a Scottish guy called Jason who runs a blog called Popcop. He had started up an international project called the Music Alliance Pact. The idea being that music bloggers from around the world would select a song from their country each month to contribute to an international on-line compilation. We each post all of the songs simultaneously on the 15th of each month with info on the artists and a link to their myspace page. The MAP itself has garnered a lot of attention from around the world. The songs are receiving many thousands of downloads, their was a recent write-up in the Guardian newspaper in the UK and I have interviewed by German public radio.

While I mainly try to profile lesser known or new bands, I have also been lucky enough to include some bigger names - most notably The Verlaines. You can find all of the Counting The Beat contributions by using the widget in the sidebar that allows you to find posts on earlier Counting The Beat episodes - just look for Music Alliance Pact or MAP.

This episode compiles the 1st year of Counting The Beat contributions to the Music Alliance Pact.

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New Releases August 09

Batrider originated in Wellington but are now based in London, following a stint in Melbourne. They've just released their second album Why We Can't Be Together. It's got a lot of good things going for it - it's strident and raucous, without being too much of either and it reminds me of all those early nineties female fronted grunge bands I liked so much, like L7, Babes in Toyland and Hole. There's also something about the sound of the whole album, it stretches and shifts. Imagine a music box that's been dropped, or got water in it. Afterwards it still plays the tunes but they sound a bit ... wonky. There are a few Batrider clips on the video page.

There's a new site selling downloads of a small but carefully selected range of local music called Sellmates. They also have a few free downloads and they've made some out-of-print limited releases available again. Amongst those are the early EPs from synth/guitar indie band So So Modern, some of which like 0000 EP originally only came out in a release of 100 mail order copies. It's nice to have this music available and affordable. Until this site came along the only other way to get your hands on them was to buy a Japanese only compilation which sold for around $50. Check out So So Modern on the video page and interviewed on National Radio (stream).

Street Chant's three members together bring their respective enthusiasm for alternative guitar bands, experimental noise and country to their music but it's the former that wins out in their loud, catchy as hell, guitar pop. They've recently released 'Scream Walk', a great primer for an album due in October. There's some nice live in the studio videos of Street Chant recorded in the Red Bull Studio - while you're there check out what is an extensive repository of live performances by local acts.

A couple of months ago I featured Urbantramper on the Music Alliance Pact. I described them as producing introspective pop songs that reflect an endearing, naive angst about their place in the world and wrote of their experimentation with making music available through creative commons licensing and pay-what-you-want pricing. It must be working to at least a small degree because after that I got reports back from overseas about people buying their last album Tokon And the Colours. The band have now released a new song 'Olympic Theme 2012' on their website, Urbantramper.com

Only one band could write a song about TV journalist John Campbell pressuring the Prime Minister to change the law to allow people to adopt pandas - and that band is Bear Cat. They've been singing about pandas, and I've been singing their praises, since 2007. Bear Cat have finally recorded an album of their extremely silly, infectious and endearing songs, Xiong Mao (Chinese for Bear Cat or Panda), which will come out in September.

Liam Finn and his musical partner Eliza-Jane Barnes appear to be workaholics. They've been touring the United States almost solidly for two years promoting Finn's first solo album I'll Be Lightning. That tour included live performances on America's National Public Radio (listen to that here) and the David Letterman show (you can hear the pair talk about that with Kim Hill on National Radio here - mp3 and see the performance on the video page). Liam participated in the recording of the second 7 World's Collide project with his father Neil in January and he has just released an EP with Eliza Jane titled Champagne in Seashells. As if that's not enough both have just recorded an album with Connon Mockasin and Lawrence Arabia called Having A Baby. The four are about to tour NZ and hope to release the album in the new year.

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On the Counting The Beatmobile Stereo

I've being doing a lot of long distance driving lately, which is a drag. The upside is that it gives me lots of time for listening to music. He's a few new things that have been getting repeat play in the Counting The Beatmobile.

Steve Abel produced one of my favourite albums of 2006. Now he's just released his second, Flax Happy. Again Abel has produced an astoundingly good set of bittersweet folk ballads. He is joined by Anika Moa on one track and the great Texas blues/folk artist Jolie Holland on two. I love a sad song, and Abel is an expert at these - just check out the title of the two songs he does with Holland - 'Cinders of the Sun' and 'Heart of Misery'. You can hear Steve interviewed by Kim Hill on National Radio here (stream). And a video for an earlier song featured in the movie Woodenhead is on the video page.

Trillion is the non-de-plume of hip-hop artist Jody Lloyd. Jody has been around for a while, with a few releases under his belt as Trillion and several more with earlier outfit Darktower. Lloyd produces hip-hop with a distinctly NZ accent. His later work with Trillion has moved on from the more classic kiwi vernacular of Darktower which some labelled as kiwiana. Lloyd's music now is still clearly of and about New Zealand, but that's not because he's invoking cliches but because his music reflects the viewpoints of a politically engaged New Zealander. The album Silent Invisible, tackles topical issues like the envionment and the war on Iraq but these aren't straight forward protest songs. Instead the lyrics come from the perspective of someone who wants to speak up but is fearful and aware of the ironic oppressive and anti-democratic actions of Western governments themselves reacting to threats to democracy. The album comes in an amazing package that looks like a government agent's folio of clippings and info on a suspect citizen, one Jody Lloyd. And while this is hip hop, it sure ain't P-Money or Mareko, although you probably could draw some parallels with the political hip-hop of Upper Hutt Posse. The video for his tribute to Edmund Hillary is on the video page.

Real Groove Magazine recently issued their NZ Music Month edition featuring a CD of 26 up and coming local musicals acts titled Awesome Feelings 2. This is the second year the magazine has carried out this great initiative. There are a great variety of the acts on the compilation, with the one defining characteristic being that they are all young, new and exciting - in fact the CD bears the byline "The Sound of Young New Zealand". Of the 26 tracks I reckon about two thirds do it for me but a few in particular stand-out: Holiday with Friends do sound a lot like The Brunettes, but they do it very well; crazy indie folk duo Bear Cat, another Counting the Beat favourite (who also featured in the What The Folk! episode), have yet another song about Pandas; while Princess Chelsea's 'Monkey eats Bananas' is one of the most addictive catchy, and kind of silly, songs I've heard in ages. (Princess Chelsea pictured)

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What The Folk!

Last year saw an interesting development in the local music scene - the revival of folk music. Well, not so much folk as folk influenced indie pop. And while it would be fair to say that this isn't an overwhelming trend (I'm not arguing this is the new Dunedin Sound or anything) there were a notable number of, mainly pretty young, groups picking up acoustic guitars and counting in with a "one, two, folk you".

Ragamuffin Children are Christchurch duo Anita Clark and Brooke Singer. Last year they picked up the Best Female Artist(s) Alternatui for Werecat Lullabies, an album of quiet, melodic songs featuring cello clarinet and glockenspiel along with the guitar, fiddle and keyboards they play when performing live (see the live video on the video page). Songs like album standouts 'More of Me' (featured in the podcast) and Lullaby are simply quite beautiful.

Urban Tramper (pictured above) describe themselves as Tree Ninjas so you might expect their albums to be full of hippy dippy nonsense. And while they do have songs extolling sitting around the campfire, hugging and watching the sunset, they write captivating music that has harmony and melody, great playing, and some suprises - check out the trumpet that comes in part way through the featured track 'Eucharist'. It was hard to pick a track from their third album Tokon and the Colours - it's a real grower - there's also a video for 'How Do You have Your Tea?' on the video page. Also worth checking out is a live session recorded for National Radio (stream).

Lots of the bands that make up the indie folk revival have a pretty low profile. Needles and Bees are only just starting to make any significant inroads onto the live scene but they've been beavering away recording tracks on a "two dollar mic" and posting them on the internet. The fidelity of their equipment isn't that good but the songs are - you can check them out here.

Teacups emerged on the scene with a gig in a big tent in downtown Auckland during the last arts festival. While they could be accused on being more enthusiastic than proficient they do have great voices and they're a lot of fun. Hopefully an EP is coming soon, I'm hoping the featured song 'Lily's Eyes' makes an appearance with a decent recording. The trio are about to get a huge publicity boost as they've scored the opening slot for Catpower.

Like Teacups, Delgirl, a self confessed alt-country act are influenced by some of the big names on the Americana scene like Jolie Holland, Jenny Lewis and Gillian Welch. 'Little Sparrow' is one of their older songs but they recently released their debut album Two, Maybe Three Days Ride.

Finally in this episode is one of my favourite acts of 2007 - Bear Cat. The song I'm featuring is 'Panda, I Love You', but almost all of their songs are about Pandas! The songs are really silly, but infectious. The other day I realised the songs I'd been singing to myself all day started,"Panda, your fur is so soft, in summer it must get so hot, I want to give you a hug, extinction, it sucks". I'm not sure how these guys didn't end up getting an Alternatui last year, but hopefully they'll release something this year and be in the running.

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