International and Industry Action

Independent music distributor Rhythmethod was established by Peter Baker in a cold, windowless suburban garage equipped with little more than a dial-up connection and a wheezing fax machine.  Ten years on, the fax machine is no more and his company is delivering some of New Zealand's best, chart-topping musical talent - Fat Freddy's Drop, Tiki Taane, Ladi6 and Shapeshifter to name just a few. And add to that stellar list the international names such as the White Stripes, Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Interpol and a rather popular British lass called Adele.

For Rhythmethod the recent news that Adele's album 21 is now New Zealand's longest charting No. 1 album of any artist ever was the perfect anniversary present with which to celebrate 10 years. Over the last decade, the company has sold 1.5 million CDs and LPs to retail stores and represented a diverse range of extraordinary local and international acts including OpShop, Cat Power, Dizzee Rascal, Gotan Project and Flight Of The Conchords but local music has always held a special place in its heart. Peter says of all the albums sold over the last 10 years, 50% were albums from NZ artists. To date the company has returned over 9 million dollars in royalties back to NZ artists, which is something the team is pretty chuffed about.

Any overview of Rhythmethod would be incomplete without mentioning the phenomenal success of Fat Freddy's Drop, a group who has been with the company from the beginning, and who has captured the imagination of the NZ public 2006. Fat Freddy's Drop has the longest charting No. 1 album of a NZ band ever and their debut studio album Based On A True Story is one of the biggest selling NZ albums of all time, passing eight-times platinum sales (134,000). A fixture in the NZ Top 40 Album Chart  and the IMNZ Album Chart since its release in 2006, the album shipped gold (7,500) on the day of release and debuted at number 1, which was a first for any local independent distributor.

But the platinum sales are also mounting up for others on the Rhythmethod roster. Look no further than the Flight Of The Conchords' self-titled album, The Black Seeds' Solid Ground, Tiki's Past, Present, Future album and Shapeshifter's System Is A Vampire album; as well as gold sales for Shapeshifter's Riddim Wise and Live albums, Sola Rosa's Get It Together and Little Bushman's Onus Of Sand.   (Thanks to www.amplifier.co.nz for this article.)

Dawn Raid Entertainment, Mai FM and the Auckland Council present GENERATION NEXT, giving hot new acts their chance to break into the music industry, with a youth talent search and concert which heads to Manukau this October. Aimed at discovering and nurturing the community’s rising stars, the talent search will take place at the Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau, with auditions on October 13th & 14th, and a grand finale concert on October 20th. The grand finale will feature the top five finalists performing alongside Savage, RIA, David Dallas, Aaradhna and Sweet & Irie. Contestants will move through the heats based on crowd response for their performance and a panel of celebrity judges, made up of Savage, Aaradhna and DJ Sir-Vere, will make the overall decision. One finalist will be crowned the GENERATION NEXT contest winner and will receive an exclusive single recording deal with Dawn Raid / Universal Music. Registrations will be open from Monday 3 October, with forms available from www.generationnext.co.nz. 


New release fanfare

Formed in late 2005 at a tiny café in New Zealand’s capital city, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra is a popular musiccomedy act in the grand tradition of Kiwi showbands, whose 11 ukuleles and a double bass lovingly interpret hit songs across the musical generations. The band has collaborated and jammed with many of New Zealand’s top artists and musicians (including Lawrence Arabia, Don McGlashan, Annie Crummer, Chris Knox, Jordan Luck, and even broadcasters Keith Quinn, Kim Hill and Simon Dallow!) The “I Love You…” EP (on sale today - October 3rd) is the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s 4th release; the artwork featuring likenesses of the band made by Wellington artist Maiangi Waitai (also known as fashion designer Dead Martin). Waitai also created four different colouring-in posters. Plus, the orchestra is donating the proceeds of online sales of the song “Boogey Man” (originally by The Bats) directly to grassroots projects in Christchurch (including getting Lyttelton’s Volcano Radio back on air). Other tracks incude saucy seventies hit “Afternoon Delight”, Justin Timberlake’s effects-heavy hit “Cry Me A River”, and Kiwi charmer “Raylene”. The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra celebrates the release of the “I Love You...” EP with two parties at the San Francisco Bathhouse in Wellington on Thursday 6th & Friday 7th October; tickets from Under The Radar and Slow Boat Records. The band will also be on a countrywide summer tour in January 2012.


On the live front

Beastwars are hitting the road for their third and final tour of the year - partly to pat themselves on the back for theirr NZ Music Award nomination for PPNZ Best Rock Album, but more importantly to drink some specially-brewed Hallertau Beastwars India Pale Ale with their fans to thank them for all the support this year. First up the band will be hitting the Manawatu, then Hamilton and Auckland where you can either help celebrate or commiserate the ultimate result of the music awards. Beastwars' final show of the year will be at Bodega in Wellington - replete with Waikato's biggest riffs with Arc of Ascent's debut capital appearance. Read more...

The festival announcements are rolling in, so here are a few announcements for you...mark your summertime diaries now!

With tickets to Wanaka's popular Rippon Festival on sale today, organisers are preparing to welcome in the Year of The Dragon with their 2012 line-up. Artists on the bill for the Waitangi Weekend event include Kora, Katchafire, TrinityRoots, Street Chant, The Yoots, Lord Echo, AHoriBuzz, The Datsuns, Orchestra of Spheres, Colour Classic, Sunshine Sound System and Disasteradio, covering musical genres from afro-disco to pop grunge, with some sexomouse free jazz in between. The tickets are on sale now from http://www.ticketek.co.nz and Pembroke Wines (Wanaka).

And La De Da have released the second and final line-up announcement for their 2011/12 New Year's Eve Festival, adding locals Optimus Gryme, Mt Eden Dubstep, Kids Of 88, Zowie, Kidz In  Space, Computers Want Me Dead, Truth, Trei and Opiuo plus the Wu Tang Clan's GZA/The Genius, Pharoahe Monch, Rahzel (formerly of The Roots), Jean Grae, ChasingShadows (HENCH Records, UK), Roksonix (Circus Records, UK), Zomboy (Never Say Die Records, UK), KOAN Sound (Hospital Records, UK), and B-Complex (Hospital Records, Slovakia), keeping things going until the early hours. This line-up joins the already-announced bill for La De Da on Saturday 31 December of Six60, Fat Freddy's Drop, Kora, State of Mind Live, Dub FX, Donavon Frankenreiter, Katchafire, The Upbeats, Sola Rosa, Skism, Blue King Brown, Iva Lamkum, Concord Dawn and Dodge and Fuski.Tickets are available from  http://www.1-night.co.nz/LaDeDa  

Big Day Out founders Ken West and Viv Lees made this announcement: "A milestone rarely achieved by any festival will become reality for us when we stage our 20th year of Big Day Out festivals. Big Day Out was created to level the playing field and prove that the title "alternative" didn't stop music from being popular. It has now changed the local musical landscape forever...Looking back to the first BDO in Sydney in 1991 we announced only 2 acts and skating and sold 52 tickets the first day. Last year we announced 41 acts and sold 52,000 tickets in an hour. So for the 20th year of BDO we thought we should pull things back a bit and meet in the middle by announcing 20 acts plus the return of first-class skating for our first round on offer. Our second big announcement of over 20 acts will be heading your way in 5 weeks time..." The first inductees of the BIG DAY OUT 2012 are: Kanye West, Soundgarden, Kasabian, My Chemical Romance, Gin Wigmore, Battles, Odd Future, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Mariachi El Bronx, Girl Talk, The Living End, Royksopp, Foster The People, David Dallas, Cut Off Your Hands, Beastwars, Cage The Elephant, Ghostwave, Mayavanya, Best Coast and Tony Hawk. Tickets On Sale:  Friday, 14 October 2011. www.bigdayout.com

It has been announced that Music Mountain Matakana north of Auckland - the property which hosted the renowned bush parties, among other events - has been sold. However, the new owner has given the previous owner permission to continue with events on the site. The first two have been announced for this summer is Tuborg Summer Sunday & Coastal Cleanup on Sunday 29 January, which will feature Fly My Pretties, Kora, The Nudge, Little Bushman, Tahuna Breaks, Electric Wire Hustle, AHoriBuzz and @Peace. Read more...

Annabel Fay is supporting the John Butler Trio and Aloe Blacc & The Grand Scheme on the More FM Summer Vineyard Tour in 2012, playing eight venues across the country, starting on Friday 3rd February at Sileni Estates, Hawkes Bay. http://www.summervineyardtour.co.nz


Around the World

Numerous privacy advocates and two Congressmen in the US have made clear their concerns over the Facebook changes that the company announced on Sept. 22. One coalition in particular on Thursday officially asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether Facebook was set up so that users were sharing more information than they realized. A detailed letter asserted that sharing information on Facebook was now automatic and worryingly assumed to be desirable, due to the policy of “frictionless sharing” that eliminates opt-ins in many instances. In addition, the new features Ticker and Timeline put information about users in front of people who hadn’t even asked to see it.
The letter was signed by Electronic Privacy Information Center, American Civil Liberties Union, American Library Association, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Media and Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog, PrivacyActivism and Privacy Times.

“The new ‘Frictionless Sharing’ features are just more examples of Facebook disregarding the privacy of its users by making sweeping changes that expose personal information without giving users the chance to choose what information they want shared with the world,” said Laura Antonini, research attorney at Consumer Watchdog.
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2011/09/30/facebook-unfair-and-deceptive