Wellington's Music Box

… this blog hasn’t died, yet.

I have been extremely busy in the past months: thinking about re-structuring, new goals and challenges and how to further my love for music.

Also a few videos have been made, which will in the near future get showcased, so please, bear with me and come back in a couple of weeks.

Well, not exactly the 3rd, but it’s been a fortnight.

And I’ve got some videos to show:  Supermodel‘s last gig before heading of to the UK to record their album, Dan Green at Bar Bodegas’ Blues Night 1st anniversary and Elston Gun opening for Supermodel.

And for those in Wellington, this Saturday, at Bar Bodega, Elston Gun fundraiser for their upcoming album!!!

WOW, it has been a long time since my last post.

And I have been very busy.

Today I’d like to showcase some fresh young musicians I discovered in the last month. First Up Mara & The Bushkas, the Louis Baker Trio and Oskar Herbig, who opened at the 1st anniversary of Bar Bodega Blues Nights.

Well, computer problems still abound, I’m in the process of recovering as many of the clips as I can from the tapes.

So, short and not necessarily sweet, no clips today.

Fortunately the last EtCetera showcase is still on the tapes, so in the next weeks you can look forward to those.

See you in a fortnight then!

…  and my external hard drive is not talking to the computer anymore. Unfortunately it contains all my music ( sob) AND the video files of my most recent outings, namely the one most missed, the latest EtCetera showcase.  A technician has offered to delve into it and recover what he can, but for now it should be assumed they are LOST!  So, the next videos will come from Homegrown in Wellington a couple of months back. But that’ll take a while.

In the time, why don’t you vote another couple of times for my Mint Chicks ‘Bad Buzz’ video.

As they say, EVERY vote counts!

It’s LIVE.  You can view and vote for my video here. You need to create an account or sign in using a couple of other social sites like facebook, twitter, etc before you can vote, and it would be HIGHLY appreciated if you took the time to do so. If you like what you see, knock yourselves out and vote the letters off your keyboards.

The ranking process is a bit complex, you might have to “vote” a couple of times in case you can’t see my entry at the first go. It took me 3 times to be able to rank myself at #1 

In addition I’m getting some more videos ready from Homegrown, and another couple of live gigs I saw in the last months.

They’ll get posted as they are ready.

enjoy,

and see you later.

To all who celebrate, Happy Easter!  To all who don’t, have a nice quiet and restful time!

No videos today. I’m kind of working on a project, and IF I do finish it over the school holidays with the kids zooming around, I might pop it up here for the next post!

And here a musical easter egg I found at Graphic River:

Last month I was able to watch and record a show with Grant Hart. Now, truth be told, I had never heard of him until then and was wondering what to expect! What a revelation, he had me going to the library the next day and checking out his and the Hüsker Dü back catalogue ! His lyrics spoke to a lot of hearts and minds, and it was quite enchanting to watch the faces of the audiences, transformed into the youths who grew up with his songs.

Here now a couple of my favourites of that night, unfortunately the sound wasn’t too good, so for the Devils Elbow clip I tried to use the audio from their new EP “KO”

For this post I was a bit in a quandary: what to edit and publish, as I had seen so many different acts in the last couple of weeks. I thought a change of routine for now might be appropriate: instead of showcasing one gig with all the clips, I’ll bring you one of each.

Now,  who did I see:

Grant Hart, with support from Devils Elbow at the San Francisco Bath House.

And Homegrown along the Wellington waterfront. With the permission of two bands,  I was able to get a Media Pass and had decided to set myself up at the Indie Stage; didn’t fancy the thought of lugging the cameras all over the place. Having gone through the process of getting the pass, setting the gear up, acquainting myself with the place and people  I checked out who else was keen to let me film. In the end, and a very spectacular end I might say,  I had filmed six out of nine bands. I think I could have covered all, but I was just shattered, and needed to take a break in between some gigs. All in all I have to say, well worth the effort!

So, first up,

The Mint Chicks ‘Welcome To Nowhere’.

As this was my first encounter I was pleased to see such a full-on stage show, got heaps of footage, and managed to capture the climbing activities as well! I thoroughly enjoyed their driving and hypnotic sounds. So, choosing the first clip to edit was a bit hard, but as the opener worked so well for me on all levels, here it is:

The next one is by The Checks: ‘Crows’

Keep checking back, as I’ll finish more clips and hopefully get them approved, more will be trickling throughout the next weeks.

Well, talk about famous last words, I don’t know where time went and it sure flew over my head and out of the window.

But I have something to show as well:  a couple of sets from Bodegas’ Blues nights and some clips from the  Mercury Crowe gig at the Soundshell, in the Botanical gardens in Wellington.

From the December Blues night it’s Dan Green and introducing Dave Bassett on harp! And from the first show of the new year presenting a young fella with an old blues name, Louis Baker, presenting a couple of covers and own songs.

As usual, enjoy, leave a comment if you feel like it,

and see you soon.