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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Music Munday

I stumbled across this last week at http://www.dreamstuffbooks.com/blog/ and I thought hey, cool, what a great idea. And then I got distracted by something shiny, or TV possibly, or by Patrick standing on the coffee table.

Anyways, I'm not really a muso, by any stretch of the imagination, but May is New Zealand Music Month: http://www.nzmusicmonth.co.nz/ and I realise that May is nearly over, but I spaced on this last week, so I'm totally going to bombard you with links to Kiwi songs. Probably just links rather than videos, I never seem to have any luck with that.

Also one of the TV stations here had a massive countdown of the nation's favourite song this weekend, which also put me in mind.

So this is an eclectic collection; it's really just songs that I think inform my experience of listening to New Zealand music. Which, you know, everyone should ;)



First up, is Brother, by Smashproof, featuring Gin Wigmore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yooqIsQnjME

It's a cool track, I think, plus they broke a 23-year-old record by having the No 1 single in the country for the most consecutive weeks _ 11.



Next is definitely one from Back in the Day:

This is Poi E by the Patea Maori Club

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQLUygS0IAQ&feature=PlayList&p=51A107384DFEAAC4&index=0

Ah ... the 80s. ;)



This is by Hollie Smith, who sometimes sings with Fly My Pretties (which I'm mentioning because it's fun to write) and their info can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_My_Pretties

However, this is Bathe in the River from the film No 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c95Oms6VdSI



Here we have Steriogram, with Walkie Talkie Man, which was directed by Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and used in an iPod ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7UvbwCjXUk



Heh ... I'm having fun with this.



This is one of the most iconic Kiwi music tracks.

Not Given Lightly, by Chris Knox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBrpQv2mzNk&feature=PlayList&p=BE806B4CB4C96A47&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21



And this one, Why Does Love do This To Me by The Exponents (formerly known as the Dance Exponents in the 1980s) was a nightclub anthem when I was at uni:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9F8nh3MvTc



If you've seen the film Knocked Up, then you'll have heard this track by Savage

Swing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUwH4acL_hk



Of course, no half-assed post on Kiwi music is complete without Split Enz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmQlBfxh4Us



Wandering Eye by Fat Freddy's Drop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCJg63SziL4&feature=PlayList&p=B55B7EE01F1376F0&index=0&playnext=1



Stop the Music, from P Money; featuring Scribe, and PNC. Guesting on instruments a couple of members I THINK of metal band 8 Foot Sativa, and the guitarist from Elemenop. I've googled, but not come up with much info

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAMDvbUqbs



And last, but not least, the No 1 most favourite song, according to the countdown, was Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn and Herbs, from the soundtrack for the animated film A Dog's Tail, based on the comic strip Footrot Flats by Murray Ball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0pWejAnLUQ



That's more than enough to get you started. I hope the links all work :)

3 comments:

chrisa511 said...

That was so much fun Maree! :D I absolutely love the Michael Gondry video!! He's an incredible director. I really liked Poi E! I've always loved Maori culture and one of these days I'll travel to New Zealand to see it. Have you read The Bone People by Keri Hulme? An amazing book about a Maori woman and a little mute boy.

Maree said...

Chris: No, I haven't read The Bone People. But my absolute favourite Maori author is Witi Ihimaera.
If/when you come, the best place to go to experience Maori culture is Rotorua. And you know, a side-trip to my part of the world, obviously.

Joanne ♦ The Book Zombie said...

I love the Steriogram video! That song was so cool.

And normally I don't listen to hip-hop/rap but Swing is a song I cannot resist - as a joke my son put it on a mix cd he made for me and I ended up loving it.