A 24-hour recording of RNZ National. The following rundown is sourced from the broadcaster’s website. Note some overseas/copyright restricted items may not appear in the supplied rundown:
20 August 2016
===12:04 AM. | All Night Programme===
=DESCRIPTION=
Including: 12:05 Music after Midnight (RNZ); 12:30 Laugh Track (RNZ); 1:05 From the World (BBC); 2:05 NZ Live; 3:05 The House of Pain by Steve Danby told by Jason Te Kare (RNZ); 3:30 The Week (RNZ); 4:30 Global Business (BBCWS); 5:10 Witness (BBC); 5:45 Voices (RNZ)
===6:08 AM. | Storytime===
=DESCRIPTION=
May the Best Man Win, by Dorothy Butler, told by Megan Edwards ; Tracey-Jane and Holly: The Rescuers, by Barbara Anderson, told by Ginette McDonald ; The Jumper, by Feana Tu'akoi, told by James Ashcroft ; Jellybean, by Tessa Duder, told by Helen Jones ; Dog, by Joy Cowley, told by Jane Waddell ; T-Rex, by Judith Holloway, told by Mihi Murray
===7:10 AM. | Country Life===
=DESCRIPTION=
Memorable scenes, people and places in rural New Zealand (RNZ)
===8:10 AM. | Saturday Morning===
=DESCRIPTION=
A mixture of current affairs and feature interviews, until midday (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
08:06
Josh Davis: prosopagnosia and super-recognisers
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to Dr Josh Davis, Reader for Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Social Work and Counselling at the University of Greenwich. He has published research on human face recognition and eyewitness identification, most recently on the abilities of "super recognisers", and works closely with London's Metropolitan Police Service on the deployment of officers possessing super-recognition ability.
Topics: crime, disability, law, science, security, technology
Regions:
Tags: faces, brain, UK, psychology
Duration: 25'00"
08:35
Vincent Covello: risk, crisis and communication
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to Dr Vincent Covello, founder and director of the Center for Risk Communication in New York, who has worked as a researcher, teacher and consultant advising over 500 government agencies on high-concern risk and crisis situations, including Ebola in Africa, the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the recent Zika virus outbreak in South America. He is visiting Wellington in September to speak at the HASANZ Conference 2016.
Topics: Civil Defence, education, environment, health, media, politics, science, security, technology
Regions: Auckland Region, Hawkes Bay
Tags: zika virus, Flint, Brazil, water, lead, Spin, communication
Duration: 23'16"
09:08
Jacinta Ruru: law from a Maori perspective
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to Professor Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa), who has been the only Maori Law Faculty staff member at the University of Otago since 1999. She has designed a new experience of learning law that brings into the classroom Maori experiences of the law, Maori relationships with land, and Maori challenges for change. She won the Prime Minister's Supreme Award, and a Sustained Excellence Award in the Kaupapa Maori category, at the 2016 National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards run by Ako Aotearoa.
EXTENDED BODY:
Professor Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa) has been the only Māori Law Faculty staff member at the University of Otago since 1999. She has designed a new experience of learning law that brings into the classroom Māori experiences of the law, Māori relationships with land, and Māori challenges for change.
This week she won the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award, and a Sustained Excellence Award in the Kaupapa Māori category, at the National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards run by Ako Aotearoa.
Kim Hill talked with her about her innovative teaching practices.
Topics: education, environment, history, identity, inequality, language, law, spiritual practices, te ao Maori
Regions: Otago
Tags: tikanga Maori, Treaty of Waitangi, John Key, Aoraki Mt Cook, Ngai Tahu, Otago Daily Times, conservation, national parks, te reo
Duration: 29'27"
09:33
Larry Pratt: guns and scripture
BODY:
Larry Pratt is Executive Director Emeritus of Gun Owners of America, a national organisation dedicated to promoting the Second Amendment constitutional freedom to keep and bear arms.
EXTENDED BODY:
High-profile mass shootings in the US have prompted calls for tighter gun control, but the founder of Gun Owners of America says support for the right to bear arms has, in fact, grown.
Gun Owners of America – a national organisation dedicated to promoting the Second Amendment constitutional freedom to "keep and bear arms" – was launched in 1976 by Larry Pratt, who is regarded as having an unrivalled impact on the development of the pro-gun movement.
He tells Kim Hill that, overall, support for what he describes as the pro-Second Amendment position, which includes the right to carry firearms in public, has been gaining strength over the decades.
“At this point now there’s a slight majority of the entire population that doesn’t want to see any more gun control laws and quite robustly supports the right to keep and bear arms.”
Pratt believes that - apart from those who have forfeited their rights, felons and the "mentally incompetent" - the right to bear arms should extend to every American. And, as the Second Amendment historically applies to firearms that would be carried by an average soldier, this includes the right to bear assault weapons.
“That was clearly the constitutional understanding of the founders, and we think that’s still true today – that the average citizen should have the kind of firepower that the average soldier has.”
Where the use of defensive force is discussed in the Bible, every case of lethal force is approved - and not to use lethal force is to allow evil to triumph, he says.
“The basic principle that we find in scripture for the righteous to give way to the wicked is the same as a murky spring or a polluted well. To put it in the contemporary vernacular, that idea stinks."
Topics: conflict, crime, defence force, history, law, politics, security, spiritual practices
Regions:
Tags: guns, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, shootings, bible
Duration: 23'57"
10:08
Ryan Griffen: Aboriginal superheroes
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to indigenous Australian director Ryan Griffen, creator of the Australia/New Zealand produced television series Cleverman, a futuristic drama with roots in Aboriginal mythology. Double episodes screen weekly from 31 August on the DUKE channel, and the series is available for viewing now at TVNZ OnDemand.
Topics: arts, business, history, identity, inequality, language, media, spiritual practices
Regions:
Tags: Australia, Aborigines, television, Iain Glenn
Duration: 28'04"
10:45
Shakespeare with David Lawrence: The Winter's Tale
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to David Lawrence, director of Wellington theatre company The Bacchanals, and research and development consultant for the Popup Globe. He discusses the Shakespeare play The Winter's Tale, described alternately as a comedy, late romance, or "problem play".
Topics: arts, history, language
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Jeanette Winterson, William Shakespeare, Terry Gilliam, bears, Othello, The Winter's Tale, Pop-up Globe
Duration: 12'37"
11:06
Debbie Stoller: feminism and knitting
BODY:
Debbie Stoller is the co-founder, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of BUST magazine in New York, and co-edited The BUST Guide to the New Girl Order and The BUST DIY Guide to Life. In 1999, she formed a Stitch 'n Bitch group to teach and encourage others to knit, which led to the 2003 bestseller, Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, and four more Stitch 'n Bitch titles. She is a guest at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016, speaking at two sessions (27 and 28 August).
Topics: author interview, books, business, education, history, identity, inequality, life and society, media, politics
Regions: Canterbury
Tags: feminism, Betty Friedan, Simone de Bouvoir, knitting, sex, sexism, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, civil rights, WORD Christchurch
Duration: 32'23"
11:45
Kate's Klassic: Infinite Jest
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to Kate Camp about Infinite Jest, the 1996 novel by the late David Foster Wallace.
Topics: books, health, history, language
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: David Foster Wallace, drugs, rehab, tennis, Tom Bissell
Duration: 15'49"
11:55
Listener Feedback to Saturday 20 August 2016
BODY:
Kim Hill reads messages from listeners to the Saturday Morning programme of 20 August.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 11'05"
=SHOW NOTES=
8:12 Josh Davis
[image:78711:quarter]
Dr Josh Davis is a Reader for Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Social Work and Counselling at the University of Greenwich. His PhD was on “Forensic Identification of Unfamiliar Faces in CCTV Images” (2007) and he has published research on human face recognition and eyewitness identification, most recently on the abilities of “super recognisers”. He works closely with London's Metropolitan Police Service on the deployment of officers possessing super-recognition ability.
8:30 Vincent Covello
[image:78611:quarter]
Dr Vincent Covello is the founder and director of the Center for Risk Communication in New York. He has worked as a researcher, teacher and consultant advising over 500 government agencies on high-concern risk and crisis situations, including Ebola, the Fukushima meltdown, the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the recent Zika virus outbreak in South America. He is visiting Wellington to speak at the HASANZ Conference 2016 (8 September).
9:05 Jacinta Ruru
[image:78423:half]
Professor Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa) has been the only Māori Law Faculty staff member at the University of Otago since 1999. She has designed a new experience of learning law that brings into the classroom Māori experiences of the law, Māori relationships with land, and Māori challenges for change. This week she won the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award, and a Sustained Excellence Award in the Kaupapa Maori category, at the National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards run by Ako Aotearoa.
9:40 Larry Pratt
[image:78718:quarter]
Larry Pratt is Executive Director Emeritus of Gun Owners of America, a national organisation dedicated to promoting the Second Amendment constitutional freedom to keep and bear arms.
10:05 Ryan Griffen
[image:78425:half]
Indigenous Australian director Ryan Griffen is the creator of the television series Cleverman, a futuristic drama with roots in Aboriginal mythology co-produced by Goalpost Pictures Australia and New Zealand’s Pukeko Pictures (Thunderbirds). Double episodes will screen weekly from Wednesday 31 August on the DUKE channel, and the series is available for viewing now at TVNZ OnDemand.
10:45 Shakespeare with David Lawrence: The Winter’s Tale
[image:78712:quarter]
David Lawrence is director of The Bacchanals, a Wellington theatre company he founded in 2000 to explore text-based theatre and redefine classic works, and research and development consultant for the Popup Globe. He will discuss the Shakespeare play The Winter’s Tale, described alternately as a comedy, late romance, or “problem play”.
11:05 Debbie Stoller
[image:78442:half]
Debbie Stoller is the co-founder, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of BUST magazine in New York, and co-edited The BUST Guide to the New Girl Order and The BUST DIY Guide to Life. In 1999, she formed a Stitch 'n Bitch group to teach and encourage others to knit, which led to the 2003 bestseller, Stitch ’n Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook, and four more Stitch ’n Bitch titles. She is a guest at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016, speaking at two sessions (27 and 28 August).
11:45 Kate’s Klassic: Infinite Jest
[image:78713:third]
Kate Camp has published five collections of poems, most recently Snow White’s Coffin (VUP). She will discuss Infinite Jest, the 1996 novel by the late David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown).
This Saturday’s team:
Producer: Mark Cubey
Wellington operator: Shaun D Wilson
Research by Infofind
=PLAYLIST=
Artist: Charles Bradley
Song: Changes
Composer: The Budos Band / Geezer Butler / Tony Iommi / Ozzy Osbourne / Bill Ward
Album: Changes
Label: Daptone
Broadcast: 10:40
Artist: Peggy Lee
Song: The Shining Sea
Composer: Mandel, Lee
Album: The Best of the Capitol Years
Label: Capitol, 1969
===12:11 PM. | This Way Up===
=DESCRIPTION=
Slices of life for curious minds. (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
12:01
Epilepsy: Ava's story
BODY:
Six year old Ava has just found out she's got epilepsy. Simon Morton speaks to Ava and her mother Amelia about what the diagnosis means for them.
EXTENDED BODY:
Six year old Ava has just found out she's got epilepsy.
"So I look up and close my eyes, then I just look around the room for a moment, then come back to normal" - Ava
“One night we were dinner and I was having a conversation with Ava. And right in the middle of the conversation she stopped talking and seemed to close her eyes. I thought ‘Gosh, she’s exhausted, she’s falling asleep at the table’. Then she did the same thing at bedtime – just seemed to blank out.
"So, of course, being a 20th-century mother, I googled it as soon as she’d gone to sleep. And the result came back that she was likely to be having an epileptic fit. Not the fit that I thought of as being epilepsy, but an absent seizure, which is just a pausing of awareness” - Amelia
Topics: health
Regions:
Tags: children, paediatric, epilepsy
Duration: 3'17"
12:02
Epilepsy: causes and treatments
BODY:
Dr Ian Rosemergy has a particular interest in epilepsy. He's a consultant neurologist and the clinical leader for neurology at Capital & Coast DHB.
EXTENDED BODY:
"It's a very disarming experience for patients, because it's something they have no control over."
Dr Ian Rosemergy has a particular interest in epilepsy. He's a consultant neurologist and the clinical leader for neurology at Capital & Coast DHB.
Topics: health
Regions:
Tags: epilepsy, causes, treatments, medical, medicine, neurology, neurologist, brain, seizures
Duration: 4'41"
12:03
This Way Up for 20 August 2016
BODY:
Epilepsy assistance dogs, Tinder shakes up India's dating scene, and how painting 'scary' fake eyes on cows' bottoms in Africa is good news for lions!
Topics: health, life and society, technology
Regions:
Tags: epilepsy, tinder
Duration: 49'15"
12:04
India: taxes and Tinder
BODY:
The dating app Tinder is disrupting traditional ideas of love and relationships in India. Meanwhile historic tax reforms will bring the country's 1.25 billion consumers into a single market for the first time. With Vidhi Doshi.
EXTENDED BODY:
In India the dating app Tinder is disrupting traditional ideas of love and relationships, while historic tax reforms bring the country's 1.25 billion consumers into a single market for the first time.
Vidhi Doshi says a 'love marriage' (as opposed to an arranged marriage) is still quite a new concept for people in India.
"Tinder has the potential to change all that because it means people are dating and finding each other in a completely new way in this place where dating is still a very difficult thing for people to talk about and to live with."
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: India, tinder, tax
Duration: 8'25"
12:05
'Scary ass' cows
BODY:
Why Dr Neil Jordan of the University of New South Wales and the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust is painting fake eyes on cows' bottoms in Africa!
EXTENDED BODY:
'Scary' eyes painted on to African cows' bottoms are the secret weapon in a fight to deter lions from attacking cattle and being killed in retaliation by farmers. The painted eyes supposedly trick the big cats into thinking they have been seen by the cows, which deters them from attacking.
"Lions and other big cats are 'ambush' predators, which means they rely on the element of surprise to bring down their prey. Once they lose that element of surprise, once they're seen by their prey, then tend to give up on the hunt" - Dr Neil Jordan.
Topics: environment
Regions:
Tags: Africa, Cows, cattle, eyes, lions, predators, conservation, Botswana
Duration: 6'57"
12:06
Epilepsy assistance dogs
BODY:
Trained dogs are helping people with epilepsy through their seizures and could even be acting as an early warning system.
EXTENDED BODY:
NZ Epilepsy Assist Dog Trust has so far placed 18 specially trained dogs with epilepsy sufferers around New Zealand.
The dogs not only help people manage seizures, they can also help break down the stigma and prejudice around epilepsy. Sometimes they can even alert their owners they may be about to have a seizure.
Simon Morton meets NZ Epilepsy Assist Dog Trust founder Andrea Hawkless, dog trainer Paula Denby-Gibbs, Erica Tiedermann and her dog Casper and Kate Hendra and her dog Roxy.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterised by recurrent seizures that affects somewhere between 1 and 2 percent of the population here in New Zealand and about 50 million people worldwide.
Related audio:
Epilepsy; Ava's story
Epilepsy: Causes and treatments
Topics: health
Regions:
Tags: animals, dogs, epilepsy, seizures
Duration: 22'27"
=SHOW NOTES=
===1:10 PM. | Music 101===
=DESCRIPTION=
The best songs, music-related stories, interviews, live music, industry news and music documentaries from NZ and the world
=AUDIO=
11:00
Dave Weir - Food For Thought
BODY:
Dave Weir, former bassist for New Gum Sarn gives us food for throught with his debut EP.
EXTENDED BODY:
Auckland musician Dave Weir has built a reputation performing in groups like Space Creeps, The Nightshades and more recently New Gum Sarn.
Now he takes centre stage with his debut solo EP Food For Thought.
Zac Arnold caught up with him ahead of it’s release.
Related Stories
Introducing: New Gum Sarn
Music Details
Artist: Dave Weir
Song: Sweet Lily White, Food For Thought, She Of The Country Side
Composer: D. Weir
Album: Food For Thought
Label: Banished Music
Topics: music
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Dave Weir, New Gum Sarn, folk, rock, alternative
Duration: 9'22"
13:15
Shayne P Carter live at the James Cook
BODY:
Shayne P. Carter plays two of his new songs live on the baby grand piano at the James Cook Hotel restaurant in Wellington.
EXTENDED BODY:
Shayne P. Carter plays two of his new songs live on the baby grand piano at the James Cook Hotel restaurant in Wellington.
"Hi there everybody, I'm your piano man for the day, I'll be here all week - actually that's a complete lie - but I probably will be here all week trying to play this song on piano..."
Though he wrote his entire album on a midi keyboard, and recorded it on a grand piano, Shayne P Carter doesn't usually do solo piano performances. Despite his misgivings about our proposition, he nails this hotel restaurant performance in two takes of the songs 'The Waiting Game' and 'Mat'.
Related Stories
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Shayne Carter, Dimmer, live music
Duration: 9'21"
14:05
Steve Abel in session
BODY:
Songwriter and Greenpeace activist Steve Abel joins Nick Bollinger in the studio with his band to play a couple of songs from his new album Luck/Hope.
EXTENDED BODY:
Songwriter and Greenpeace activist Steve Abel joins Nick Bollinger in the studio with his band to play a couple of songs from his new album Luck/Hope.
The winner of 'Saddest Song In The World' in Berlin in 2009, Steve Abel has taken seven years to release the follow up to 2008's Flax Happy. There's nothing happy about the songs on Luck/Hope.
"I'm a happy person" says Abel. "But I don't feel the need to express happiness in song. I had a conversation with [film-maker and writer] Gabriel White about this - he said there's a difference between sadness and melancholy as a place to occupy."
Part of this album was written and recorded in New York when he was there in November 2009. "They were post-financial crisis, and the world seemed particularly uncertain - perhaps not even as uncertain as it feels now. But I did have this feeling of - that 'Not Going Anywhere' idea is both a comfort and also an awful feeling, like it's always been like this, and it goes round and round, and it can be a release, a freedom, but it could also be a sense of being trapped. And I wanted that song to work both ways."
Part of the lag between his albums is due to his other occupation as a spokesperson for Greenpeace. "that activist work is all consuming" says Abel. "You do get weary of speaking in sound bites when you're the spokesperson for a cause, and you're not able to delve into the complexities and nuances of life when you're in that advocacy role. Whereas with songs - for me that's the best thing it can do, articulate the doubt and uncertainties as well as the joys."
"On a personal level I've needed both of those things to stay sane."
Hear the interview with Nick Bollinger, as well as three songs played live with Reb Fountain and Jonathan Pearce at the audio button above.
Related Stories
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 23'00"
14:55
Introducing: Unsanitary Napkin
BODY:
Unsanitary Napkin introduce their track 'Choade Crystal'.
EXTENDED BODY:
Name of project: Unsanitary Napkin
Real names: Hannah Salmon, Rupert Hunter, Ben Knight
Age (of project): 1 year
Hometown: Wellington
Associated acts: Rogernomix, All Seeing Hand, Downer Buzz, Bent Folk, Teen Hygiene, Daily Secretion
Formative musical experience:
Rupert - I don’t know! My dad loves music, and when I was a little kid I really liked Little Richard, “Boom Boom” by John Lee Hooker, and the punk-rock Popeye the Sailor Man from Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits. I once asked my parents to make me a bowl of spinach for breakfast, because I was convinced it actually gave you big muscles and short bursts of super-strength. “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard was on. I ate the whole bowl of spinach, then jumped on my dad and tried to wrestle him.
Hannah - I don’t know either. There were so many influential bands/musicians, some good, some terrible. Both my mum and dad were into music, albeit very different music. My mum would listen to Prince (although it was later “Emancipation” era Prince, the sexual nature of which made me feel weird), and Aretha Franklin, and Tom Waits, and 70s “jazz rock” like Steely Dan (for whom I have a soft spot - see Musical Guilty Pleasure). I also remember staying at my dad’s place in Dunedin and his partner at the time would play the Tank Girl soundtrack. That’s when I first heard Devo’s “Girl U Want”, an experience I treasure to this day. It’s also when I first heard L7, which I thought was the heaviest shit ever. There was a lot of shit between then and now, but I think those were pretty formative experiences for me.
Ben - My parents never had a stereo when I was growing up so I would listen to a radio station in Dunedin called “93 Rox” through a clock radio. When my older brother saved up for a boombox with a tape deck when I was 12, I started taping songs off the radio and made myself a mix-tape. It was mostly songs from the Ren and Stimpy soundtrack and some Ace of Base, but also had two songs, “Roots Radicals” and “Ruby Soho”, by Rancid. Despite it being cruddy California pop punk with a fake British accent, I was captivated, and when the internet happened, one of the first things I looked up on Alta Vista was “punk music”, and I never escaped its clutches.
Musical Guilty Pleasure:
Hannah - There are loads but I’m gonna go with Steely Dan.
Rupert - I’m from a Protestant background, so I think I have shameful pleasures. I feel ashamed about a lot of music I liked as a teenager. After reading Mötley Crüe’s book I stopped wanting to listen to music by guys like them. I listen to my own music a lot, and feel ashamed about enjoying it. Doubly so if I’m caught in the act.
Ben - Revisiting my formative musical experience (see above). And Dennis Marsh.
Bandcamp
Music Details
Artist: Unsanitary Napkin
Song: Choade Crystal
Composer: Unsanitary Napkin
Album: Unsanitary Napkin
Label: Unsanitary Napkin
Topics: music
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: Introducing, Unsanitary Napkin, Daily Secretion, All Seeing Hand, Rogernomix, Devo, punk, Pick Up Artist
Duration: 3'39"
16:05
The Mixtape: Ebony Lamb
BODY:
Ebony Lamb of folk-country band Eb and Sparrow shares her C60 faves for The Mixtape.
EXTENDED BODY:
Eb and Sparrow's Ebony Lamb takes us through a few of the songs that have shaped her life and art, for The Mixtape.
Ebony Lamb didn't intend to be a musician - photography and painting were her first loves. But at 29, she found her world crumbling. A mother of one, in the midst of a break-up, with her father passing away - country music really spoke to her. And her own songs began to pour out.
"For the first year, I wrote a song a day, easy. It was a backlog of emotion - of life. A lot had happened, and I didn't realise it until I started writing."
Here Ebony talks candidly with Yadana Saw about her transient upbringing, her Rudolf Steiner schooling, her wild years and how motherhood saved her.
Related audio
Eb and Sparrow: Small town Surroundings on Saturday Mornings with Kim Hill
NZ Live: Eb and Sparrow
Introducing: Eb and Sparrow
Music details
Artist: Karen Dalton
Song: Something On Your Mind
Composer: Dalton
Album: In My Own Time
Label: Light In The Attic
Artist: Jack Brymer and The Academy of St. Martin-In-The-Fields
Song: Concerto For Clarinet and Orchestra in A
Composer: Mozart
Album: Out of Africa OST
Label: MCA
Artist: The Pixies
Song: Debaser
Composer: Black Francis
Album: Doolittle
Label: 4AD
Artist: Nina Simone
Song: Ain't Got No I Got No Life
Composer: Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni, James Rado
Album: 'Nuff Said
Label: RCA
Artist: 3Ds
Song: Beautiful Things
Composer: 3Ds
Album: The Venus Trail
Label: Flying Nun
Artist: Portishead
Song: Glorybox
Composer: G. Barrow, B. Gibbons, A. Utley
Album: Dummy
Label: Polydor
Artist: Gillian Welch
Song: Revelator
Composer: Welch-Rawlings
Album: Time (The Revelator)
Label: Acony
Artist: Delaney Davidson
Song: I'm So Depressed
Composer: Davidson
Album: Bad Luck Man
Label: Voodoo Rhythm
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Eb and Sparrow, The Mixtape, Rudolf Steiner
Duration: 54'56"
16:40
Screaming Females
BODY:
New Brunswick's Screaming Females detail their D.I.Y. history ahead of a New Zealand tour.
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This month saw New Brunswick rock trio Screaming Females tour New Zealand for the first time.
Over the course of six albums and relentless touring Screaming Females have built a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the world. That hard work pays off too, with the band working with the likes of Shellac’s Steve Albini and video director Lance Bangs.
Zac Arnold sat down with Marrissa, Jarret and Mike ahead of their tour.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Screaming Females, DIY
Duration: 11'33"
19:30
Total Depravity by The Veils
BODY:
Nick Bollinger checks a fruitful collaboration between British/New Zealand band The Veils and U.S. hip-hop producer El-P.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger checks a fruitful collaboration between British/New Zealand band The Veils and U.S. hip-hop producer El-P.
It’s twelve years since The Runaway Found: the debut album of The Veils, which was most people’s introduction to the particular talents of this group’s British-born, New Zealand-raised frontman Finn Andrews. Though then barely out of his teens, he already had a trademark style: brooding, intense, distinctly gothic, yet with an underlying sense of traditional songcraft, forged in the folk clubs of Devonport. And the style has continued to serve him well, even as his musical ideas have matured and grown.
Total Depravity is the fifth album from the Veils and though still recognisably them, it has more than a few new sonic twists.
The first hints were heard in June with the album’s initial single, ‘Axolotl’, which sets a typical Andrews lyric, rife with images of transfiguration and devilish deals (plus an cunning quote from Bob Dylan), amid an ominously sludgy sonic landscape courtesy of rapper and producer El-P, of vogueish hip-hop outfit Run The Jewels. The combination clicked, and there is more of El-P to be heard throughout the new album. It’s hardly like the Veils have gone hip-hop, but they have certainly refreshed their traditional rock with some of El-P’s sonic palette. You can hear how loops and effects form the foundations of some of the tracks.
There’s always been a contrast between Andrews’s lyrics with their depictions of the demonic, and his voice which in its pure state can sound almost choirboy angelic. And if that has meant that in their more gauche moments The Veils can come across a bit like Nick Cave-lite, at best the paradox works in their favour, giving the music a unique tension.
There are still moments on the new album where Andrews’ voice soars, but he’s been experimenting with other voices too. For the melodramatic ‘King Of Chrome’ he abandons melody in favour of recitation. Not that he’s turned rapper, so much as beat poet-meets-carnival barker.
The American highway setting of that surreal narrative reminds me how little of Andrews’ music sounds particularly English – or, for that matter, New Zealand-ish. Rather, his songs take place in a landscape of his mind; a place he seems forced to share with an assortment of ghouls and demons.
The Veils live at one of those intersections of high and low art. Listening to Total Depravity is a bit like being trapped in some cross between a B-grade zombie film and something far more elevated – a Fellini or Bunuel classic, perhaps. But Finn Andrews is hardly the only person working at this juncture. Another is the film director David Lynch, who has apparently cast Andrews in a yet-to-be-revealed part his new season of Twin Peaks. Andrews is currently sworn to secrecy on this matter, but from the sound of this album I expect to see him looking very much at home there.
Songs featured: Axolotl,Low Lays The Devil, A Bit On The Side, House Of Spirits, King Of Chrome, Here Come The Dead, Total Deparvity.
Total Depravity is released on Nettwerk Records 26 August.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, The Veils, Run the Jewels, El P, David Lynch
Duration: 9'43"
19:30
Drinking With The Birds by Jesse Sheehan
BODY:
Nick Bollinger discusses the Neil Finn-produced debut of former Rockquest winner Jesse Sheehan.
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Nick Bollinger discusses the Neil Finn-produced debut of former Rockquest winner Jesse Sheehan.
Back in 2009, the Smokefree Rockquest was - for the first time - won for by a solo performer: a Wellington College student with a shock of ginger curls, a soaring voice and some unusually sophisticated songs. That was Jesse Sheehan, and the promise that was recognised back then has been borne out since: through a series of EPs, an ENZO cameo and more recently a part in Neil Finn’s touring band. Even so, his first full-length album is a surprise.
Drinking With The Birds is the sort of record not many people make at any stage, let alone this early in their careers. Most don’t have the material, the chops or the opportunity. This is big, technicolour chamber-pop, with brightly coloured backings and melodies that seem to roam wherever they feel like, and Sheehan has the vocal chops to follow them.
Like that other diminutive redhead, Dave Dobbyn, Sheehan’s is a voice that seems almost too big for its frame. Where, you wonder, are those near-operatic notes coming from on ‘Sentimental Fool’? But that’s by no means his only voice. He can also take it low and whispery, like a junior Leonard Cohen, on ‘Brothers Of Jaiyang’. And there’s a lot of ground in between, all of it deeply musical, some boldly experimental, all held together by Sheehan’s strong, rangy melodies.
At times I hear Rufus Wainwright and his grand rococo pop constructions; at other times hints of Radiohead. But if there’s anyone I’m consistently reminded of it’s Neil Finn. Like more than a few songwriters around the world, Sheehan has clearly taken inspiration from Finn’s exquisitely singable melodies, and there are tunes, chord changes and hooks here that would hardly seem out of place on a Crowded House record.
Sheehan must have picked up a thing or two playing in Finn’s band, but he has had the additional benefit of having Finn as producer of this album, and his presence is audible. He shares with Sheehan a lot of the playing – between them they cover everything from guitars, piano and drums to optigons and vibraphones – and you’ll find the kind of details you would be expect to find on one of Finn’s own records.
Does the hand of Finn rest a bit too heavily on Drinking With The Birds? Maybe at times, yet it is a credit to the strength of Sheehan’s own ideas that it doesn’t sound more like Finn. And for much of the album, the production, lavish as it is, is simply serving Sheehan’s widescreen musical vision. Where but from his own imagination does the outrageous ending of ‘The Way It Was Before’ come from, where Sheehan departs from the melody and raves like some kind of soapbox prophet preaching end times?
Sheehan says Drinking With The Birds is the record he has been dreaming up ever since he was at school. It’s a record that dares to dream big, and that dream can sweep you up and take you along with it.
Songs featured: Sentimental Fool, Stone Girl, Brother Of Jieyang, Rising Sun, Last Man Standing, Reverie In Chains, The Way It Was Before.
Drinking With The Birds is available on Universal.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, Jesse Sheehan
Duration: 11'17"
=SHOW NOTES=
===5:11 PM. | Focus on Politics===
=DESCRIPTION=
Analysis of political issues presented by RNZ's Parliamentary team (RNZ)
===5:30 PM. | Tagata o te Moana===
=AUDIO=
It remains unclear where men held at Australia's offshore processing camps on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island will go when the centre is closed; human rights professor says closure of Manus detention centre a sign of cracks in Australia's offshore processing policy; the President of Bougainville is furious after Papua New Guinea decides to give its Rio Tinto shares to landowners rather that the autonomous government; pie in the sky or milestone achievement? NZ's multi-million dollar Solomons airport; difficulties with negotiating the PACER plus trade agreement for Pacific islands have come to light at a public presentation in Auckland; the Marshall Islands has been told that achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will be difficult unless the quality of data can be improved; the vision of former New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk continues through a trust in his name.
=DESCRIPTION=
Pacific news, features, interviews and music for all New Zealanders, giving an insight into the diverse cultures of the Pacific people (RNZI)
===6:06 PM. | Great Encounters===
=DESCRIPTION=
In-depth interviews selected from RNZ National's feature programmes during the week (RNZ)
===7:06 PM. | Saturday Night===
=DESCRIPTION=
Saturday nights on RNZ National is where Phil O'Brien plays the songs YOU want to hear. All music from 7 till midnight (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
=SHOW NOTES=
Not the complete playlist by any means! Check back just before 7pm on Saturday for the latest version.
7 - 8
The Stylistics - Betcha By Golly Wow
Enya - Only Time
John Hartford - Gentle On My Mind
Connie Francis - Where The Boys Are
Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones - Makin' Whoopee
Anika Hutschreuther - Gran Vals
Lisa Hannigan - Prayer For The Dying
Leonard Cohen - Almost Like The Blues
Supertramp - The Logical Song
Galt McDermot - Coffee Cold
Phil Ochs - Changes
Richard Thompson - A Heart Needs A Home
The Blasters - Bus Station
8 - 9
Jeff Beck and Joss Stone - I Put A Spell On You
Marlon Williams - Dark Child
The Jive Aces with Toni Elizabeth Prima - Bring Me Sunshine
The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon
America - Horse With No Name
Count Basie with Tony Bennett - Chicago
ELO - Mr Blue Sky
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Cat Stevens - The First Cut Is The Deepest
Chris Farlowe - Out Of Time
Bob Dylan - Shelter From The Storm
9 - 10
The Peddlers - Girlie
Son Of Dave - Brokedown Lincoln
Richie Havens - Freedom
Tarja Turunen - Our Great Divide
Tim Hardin - Simple Song Of Freedom
The Family Crest - Beneath The Brine
The Nylons - Na Na, Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye
Tami Neilson - Cry Over You
Bernie Taupin - Billy Fury
Mi Sex - Computer Games
The Underdogs - Sitting In The Rain
10 - 11
Julie Cruise - Floating
The Amazing Rhythm Aces - Give Me The Flowers While I'm Living
The Jam - David Watts
JJ Cale - Cocaine
Guy Clark - Texas Cookin'
Los Lobos - Come On Let's Go
Paolo Nutini - Growing Up Beside You
The Band - I Shall Be Released
The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Gimme Some Rhythm Daddy
The Pointer Sisters - How Long / Betcha Got A Chick On The Side
John Prine - I Love You So Much It Hurts
The Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata - Maria
11pm - Midnight. Late Night Phil, listening back to the week in music history.
Sly And The Family Stone - Que Sera Sera
Jimmy Webb (with The Jordanaires) - Elvis And Me
The Honeydrippers - Rockin' At Midnight
Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
Split Enz - I Walk Away
Johnny Nash - For Your Love
Woodstock 1969 Mini-Concert:
Joan Baez - Joe Hill
Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friend
Ten Years After - I'm Going Home