Category: Music

May is New Zealand Music Month – yay! This year’s ‘Level Up’ theme is about bringing into focus tomorrow’s stars, showcasing up-and-coming talent and success stories, and celebrating what emerging success means for the New Zealand artists

What’s happening at the Library:

• A live-streamed performance from local artists on May 26th. Check back here and we’ll post a link to it.
• A display of music photography, called From The Pit (https://fromthepit.co.nz/). You can see this on the big screen on the Central Library’s Sound & Vision area throughout May.
• A quiz so you can test your NZ Music knowledge. You’ll find it at the bottom of this post.
• Even more exciting: we want YOU to help us write a song! Submit a line and we’ll use it to write a song at the end of the month. You can submit a line by: writing it on the song lyric sheet in Sound & Vision at the Central Library; or email your line to content@pncc.govt.nz (subject: “Library song”); or comment on this blog post below.

As usual, you can borrow local music on CD and vinyl for free! Visit the Sound & Vision area of the Central Library.

To find out more about what’s happening around the country, have a look at the New Zealand Music Commission website (https://nzmusic.org.nz/).

Don’t have a turntable at home? Now you can borrow one from the Library!

It’s a one-week issue period. Grab some LPs from the vinyl collection to try them out on the player!

The turntable is kept at the Sound & Vision desk in the Central Library, right next to the main entrance off the ramp. There’s also one you can borrow at the Awapuni Library.

Separate from, but aligned with, Maori Language Week, Waiata Anthems Week brings you top musicians from Aotearoa playing sublime music and singing in te reo Maōri.

Their mission: “An industry-wide initiative, Waiata Anthems Week will be a celebration of the best new waiata and a chance to honour the champions and pioneers of te reo Māori who paved the way for future generations, supporting the emergence of a truly bilingual musical landscape.”

Here’s the website, where you’ll find links to the music on various platforms.

And don’t forget that Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori runs from Mahuru (September) 13th – 19th. Get some inspiration from the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori website.

Kia kaha te reo Māori!

Another great album by PoP! If you’re in the mood for moodiness, a swirl of sounds, and ethereal vocals, you’re in luck. The creator, Daniel Brown, has tagged this release as noise-pop, indie rock, lo-fi… I’d probably add in shoegaze or post-rock.

https://polaroidsofpolarbears.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-what-i-heard

Lung did quite well for themselves back in the day. Main Lung guy Dave White ran The Stomach for a while, and he was always anarchically encouraging, and ready to push you into doing something musically weird if you felt like it. (Anecdotes in the comments, please!) Far-flung Lung toured overseas, and I seem to recall they did well in some European countries. Anyway, come 2021 and they said “let’s do that stuff again”, so they did a tour of Aotearoa. I’m told that all the energy and attitude from the Nineties was still present and correct!

https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/17926/LUNG-Summer-Tour-Of-Aotearoa-Announced.utr

https://davewhite1.bandcamp.com/