I've got so much things to say to you

Ladybird - West Coast

Ladybird - Forgot How To Roar

A year and a bit ago I went back to my old hood (Christchurch bro) for a few weeks at Christmas time. A bunch of other expats were back too and naturally we spent a fair bit of time at old haunt and staple venue of the (tiny) music scene, the Dux De Lux. It was terrifically nostalgic gig because local favs Minisnap played, who, aside from not having main main Robert Scott, are pretty much Flying Nun legends The Bats. They're definitely the old faithful of the Christchurch scene but always a treat to see live, and on this night back then some French band called Ladybird played. They sounded like some Flying Nun band circa 1983 (this is a very good thing) and Victor, one of the four guys, had a badass French line bowl cut. So I asked them to come back to a party that at the time didn't actually exist and wasn't actually at my house but at my friends' house who were happy to oblige (though my friends' flatmates, by then asleep, were not so enthused). A week later they played a house show at the same house with more interested people than you would've thought Christchurch could contain all in the one amazingly kitschly kitted out living room with just one tiny amp and acoustic guitars. It was wonderful; so was seeing them a year later on Australia day at another (much hotter) house show. Seems kind of like the polar opposite of Australia day festitivies though; French twee guys playing Flying Nun inspired indie pop. What did the community think?

On the first song up there, 'West Coast', they're singing about NZ's West Coast which is about as Flying Nun as you can get. Maybe. At least I assume it's NZ's West Coast; it could be France's. But those slow jangly guitars sure make it sound like NZ if there is in fact a sound that can be evoked from the country. I've always found it just so right listening to someone like The Clean or The Verlaines in a flat in Chirstchurch when it's fairly cold and grey but it's so much better when driving around the countryside. It's nice thinking that somehow these guys are on the same vibe as you, growing up in a place like NZ. You search for that stuff, culture and all that, something to relate to, identity, and it's weird; a strange postcolonial country but amazing all the same.

[Ladybird MySpace]

Under the light

Dimmer - Drop You Off
Dimmer’s records have always been nocturnal affairs. The term ‘Noir Pop’ is used on the sticker on the front of new album There My Dear but Shayne Carter coined it himself. It’s not just pop with a dark streak, its stylish and sensual. If Dimmer was a photograph, it would have been taken by Gregory Crewdson.

I remember night drives on the hills and streets of Christchurch, (not far from Carter’s home town Dunedin) with their first record (from which the bonus tracks on the new one are taken) I Believe You Are A Star loud on the speakers and it just being perfect. It’s evocative and somehow very New Zealand sounding, furthering the murky pop of his first band, Straitjacket Fits, part of the revered Flying Nun ‘Dunedin sound’ of the 80s and 90s. I'm not a huge fan of this new Dimmer record but it took me back (thanks, bonus tracks) to I Believe You Are A Star which is nothing short of amazing. Shayne Carter's a chilled out guy with a humble approach to songwriting, unpretentious which is sort of surprising given the slick nature of Dimmer's moods and tones.

“I’ve always found that if I make music that moves me in one way or another, then to me, that’s the whole point. A song can be technically correct and tick all the boxes but they may not have a soul that moves you. I’ve written those too, but thankfully they don't make it beyond my room. But I just want to make music that has some mystery to it and kind of nails something inexplicable. I think that’s the whole point of music and good art, really, without being pretentious about it. But you know what i mean with inexplicable things. Great art and great music - not that i'm saying what we do is great rt - but that stuff taps into that transcendent kind of thing."

It's hard writing about that stuff sometimes though, without using those cliched words. It's probably very tricky to make it, too, without coming off like some wacked out Bono soundtrack to the soundtrack of yr life sort of shit. But it just seems so important that people are making this sort of stuff. Those vaguely transcendental moments that take you away from where you are even for just a second.

"Yeah I think so too bro. When you do listen to a great bit of music, its uplifting and beyond the everyday mediocrity. and great music is also beyond the everyday mediocrity of most pop music. it all depends what you think is uplifting, though. Some people think Maroon 5 is uplifting, and well, good on them. We all go for different kicks".