Cute music seems to be the hip thing at present and there seems to be no shortage of it around us. Three albums have been released recently that are quite nice, and I feel the need to write about their nice-ness. All boxes are ticked so lovers of this genre can pop these CD’s/LP’s along side their Camera Obscura and/or Belle and Sebastian (etc) collections.

Please note: To prevent oneself from turning into a giant pink fluffy bunny rabbit with a tendency to make daisy chains and frolic in fields of green, listening to something hardcore in between these is recommended.

FIRST…

The dynamic duo known to us as the Brunettes return with yet another twee-pop classic, ‘Paper Dolls’. Pleasant poppy tunes and cutesy lyrics combine to create a fun and somewhat humorous album. The Brunettes have provided us with an accessible and yet original soundtrack which will choice-up our summer. Check out the video for their first single ‘Red Roller Skates’ on http://www.myspace.com/thebrunettes. Also if you attend Animal Collective at the Power Station on the 8th of December, you’ll be able to see the Brunettes as the support act. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Posted by claire in Uncategorized

Like a butterfly from the chrysalis, Auckland is dragging itself out into the warmer weather and finding it has beautiful wings. Wings straight from New York, no less.

Ok well maybe the metaphor is best used to describe the activities of the town as a whole, but seriously there's a pop up (another one) coming with cool clothes from NY designers and stuff! Hurrah! More here

Posted by claire in Fashion

Tags: butterflies, new york

Unbirthdays are real at Cassette. Every day is a tea party. This week is going to be merrier than usual though with a stellar line up of entertainment, bands, DJs and repeated toastings as the bar officially turns one. Of particular note is this Thursday's afternoon/evening celebration that sees the likes of The Brunettes, Leda Petit Burlesque,  MC Mikey, Tourettes and the Shoe String Quartet (among others) get together, to party and celebrate a year of partying.

Entry is free all night but get in early. More here

Posted by claire in Uncategorized

It's all briny madness at this time of the year and High Seas group show '100 Clams', is X. All bonafied treasure for the scurvy price of $100 with works from 30^ local darlings and abroad including: Aleksandra Petrovic, Tim Malloy, Imogen Taylor, Frank and Becky and yours truly.

Shake a peg and come along December 11th, 6pm ish. Works will be available until their last day of trade Dec 22nd

Posted by Erin in Uncategorized

Tags: Art, The High Seas

See-Saw 3.0, the third instalment of the new monthly artists program at Cassette 9, brings you fresh collaborative mural, painterly and print work from renowned aerosol artists 2tone and Peap Tarr. The soundtrack for the opening reception will be provided by selectors Scratch 22 and Jelly Fish who has recently returned from a stint in Melbourne.

Works will be available for sale for the duration of the exhibition from the opening on Wednesday 02.12.09 at 6pm. This is may be your last chance to see Peap’s wall styles before he leaves us to reside in Thailand.

2tone has been painting with aerosol for over 10 years, though he works in several other mediums including digital and ink. His style is usually linear, use of both vibrant and muted colours with hard black line. He also uses alternative illustrative techniques and painting methods not usually adopted by graffiti artists. 2tone has ventured and painted in several countries including England, Australia and Turkey in recent years. He has also had several shows in New Zealand and Australia with most notably the 'Nightbreed,' show last year in Auckland with Peap.'

Posted by claire in Art

Tags: 2tone, Cassette9, Peap Tarr, See, SeeSaw

We rocked up to the Becks Berlin Sessions at Galatos on Saturday night, and after an embarrassing moment where the door host couldn’t find our names, we ended up paying our good money in to find Nick D djing to about 40 people. Galatos is a weird venue – it has a bit of school hall feeling to it, and it takes a nice big crowd in there to get things going. So we stuck to the bar while the place began filling up. A wee gripe aside (if a gig is sponsored by Becks, you’d think they could sell them for less than $8 a bottle...), we eventually got right into it. Up and comer Shaveer was on after Nick D with a mix of the kind of deep tech-house associated with headliners Ame. The duo were recently voted one of the house/techno innovators of the decade after initial releases on Jazzanova’s “Sonar Kollective” label, before setting up their own “Innervisions” imprint.

Posted by Kat in Culture, Events, Music

Tags: Berlin, Dance music, House, Techno

Over eighty can-I-laugh-any-more-or-will-my-face-fall-off minutes, Tom Sainsbury’s latest play – My London Sojourn – tells the story of (wait for it) his London sojourn. And as in the tradition of Kiwis’ tales of ‘The Big OE’, it IS full of existential angst, hope and despair, but perhaps not quite in the way you might expect.

Sainsbury wrote and directed this play, as per, but this time he also takes to the stage, as Tom Sainsbury: as a version of himself that is disarming, charming, and wildly idiotic. It’s parody, of course, that he does so well, and this play hones the Sainsbury aesthetic to an hilariously serrated knife-edge. He manages to pastiche the pastiche of the New Zealander abroad; by borrowing heavily from that zeitgeist of navel-gazing, self-deprecating comedy we do OH so well he achieves an almost post-post-modern performance that both nods to its predecessors and scorns them. “Come and see my latest play, in the style of Flight of the Conchords and Lord of the Rings…” he and his producer shout from a street corner in Soho.

Posted by Alexander in theatre

Tags: K-Road, Kiwi, London, Martyn Wood, Nic Sampson, Roberto Nascimento, Serena Cotton, Stephanie Lee, Te Karanga Gallery, theatre, Tom Sainsbury