Stereotype Hifi Blog

It comes around every year and I for one love it. NZ Music month is a great way for the music industry here in New Zealand to showcase globally what we’ve got going on in our little musical corner of the world. As well as some great NZ new releases we also get spoilt for choice with the amount of gigs going on, so get out there amongst it and enjoy some fine New Zealand music.

Here’s some NZ music that’s worth checking out:

The new Phoenix Foundation album (and their old albums too!) is well worth a listen, here’s the first single off the album

The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo
(Embedding is disabled so you’ll have to watch it on Youtube, but come back!)

When I hear The Mint Chicks on the radio, I always find myself turning it up and singing along, their latest single Say Goodbye is no different. I can’t find a video of that online so here’s an older track:

The Naked and Famous are an Auckland band that I think will be around a while, I think their style is very timely and they’ve done a stellar job of their video Young Blood, I look forward to more from this band.

The Artisan Guns are another Kiwi band to keep an eye on. Autumn has been out for a little while now and did pretty well on the charts here, I think they have a sound that will be well received offshore, let’s just hope they get the chance.

In June last year Chris Knox one of NZ’s great songwriters suffered a life altering stroke. The album ‘Stroke’ is a celebration of Chris and his music – it’s a bunch of friends and fans playing his songs.  To find out more about the album visit http://www.chrisknox.co.nz/

Here’s one of Jay Reatard’s last recordings, Chris’ song “pull down the shades” off the album Stroke

And one for our International readers – Poi e updated with some shots from the latest NZ movie Boy – You can’t get more Kiwi than this

And of course remember to check out all the local acts playing this month, you’ll find a gig guide on the NZ music month site

One last thing, NZ music isn’t just for one month of the year, you’ll see two NZ albums made my Top 9 of 09 list last year.

Support your local.

Quite often I get asked, so what are you listening to at the moment?

Well here’s an answer to that question, well kind of, the list is much longer in reality…

I hope you enjoy these wonderfully talented artists, some of whom will never be heard by many amongst the masses of commercial pop on the air waves.

So what are you listening to?

There has been plenty of best of lists going around the ‘interweb’ in the past few weeks… this got me thinking, what is my top 9 of 09?

Here it is:

#9 Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

This album definitely took a few listens and for me its not one where I sit down and make it through the whole thing.. but there are great moments and My Girls is epic!

#8 Fanfarlo – Reservoir

I’ve only had this album a week or two and heard many friends raving about it, in fairness I need to give it more time and if I had it could well have made it higher up this list. A great debut, watch out for what these guys do next.

#7 Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

Noble Beast was my first introduction to singer songwriter Andrew Bird, I found myself listening to this album over and over, its a great recording and collection of songs and Bird’s voice is wonderful.

#6 The Veils – Sun Gangs

“A very modern mixture of prayers, love letters and personal record keeping” is how lead singer Finn Andrews described The Veils finest offering to date, outstanding song writing. Check out this nice little short film about the band and the album. Made in NZ. Love it.

#5 Wilco – Wilco (The Album)

The much hyped and anticipated Wilco album, I must admit I didn’t use to be a Wilco fan but after seeing Jeff Tweedy and the boys live at the seven worlds concert I was converted. I still find ‘Sky Blue Sky’ boring but this album is great, some fun catchy tunes and Tweedy’s voice has never sounded better.

#4 Lady of the Sunshine – Smoking Gun

Angus Stone steps out into a side project with fantastic results, a great album that I’ve thrashed. If you’re a fan of Angus & Julia Stone, grab this, if you’re not do it anyway.

#3 Dimmer – Degrees of Existence

Shayne Carter has been working hard and the results have paid off. One of my favourite NZ artists and another solid album. I wasn’t sure on the single ‘Degrees of Existence’ at first so if this is all you’ve heard, listen to the rest of it. ‘Too far gone to care’ is genius.

#2 Dan Auerbach – Keep it Hid

Black Keys front man Auerbach steps out on his own and delivers a great album, making the #1 spot for Amazon’s best of 09. A great raw sound and his musical talent shines through.

#1 Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadues Phoenix

Wow. Ok I’ve always been a Phoenix fan but this album blew me away, especially after their last mediocre effort.  ’1901′ has to be my favourite track of the year. Its not the longest album around but its solid. It works as an album start to finish, you listen to the whole thing each time you put it on. Its fun, its recorded well and my subwoofer loves it

In terms of singles of the year, Moth Wings by Passion Pit and Sweetest Disposition by The Temper Trap are worthy of a mention as is My Girls by Animal Collective… but as mentioned above 1901 by Phoenix gets my vote.

Well there you have it, what are your picks?

Last night was a great night out and everyone including the boys from Pearl Jam was having a great time. It is evident the band has moved on from its angsty days and the performance and set list reflected this. Vs is quite an angst filled (but brilliant) album and there wasn’t too many songs off this album that made it into the set list. There were quite a few songs off backspacer and these live had more energy and were great – it might make me enjoy the album more after seeing them live! Highlights for me were Black, Given to Fly, Yellow Ledbetter and Rocking in the Free World – all of which would be on the set list if I had picked it… No Alive, no Go, and missing some other big hits, some might be disapointed but not this punter, definitely got my moneys worth. ‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a small town’ was for “anyone from Te Awamutu” and Vedder’s voice had never sounded better, singing “its been 11 years” (since they last played in NZ) saw a cheer from the crowd.

Ben Harper joined the stage to play slide guitar on Red Mosquito, here’s some of it shot from my phone.. so err excuse the quality:

At the beginning of the second encore, Vedder invite up “Uncle Neil” and son Liam and the played a Not Given Lightly by Chris Knox. This was a special treat for everyone with Neil prefacing the song “He’s still here, we are all blessed for that, lead us off son” referring to Knox’s recent stroke – support Chris by buying Stroke – Songs for Chris Knox.

In terms of the sound of the show, it was pretty good. I was sitting off to the side in the lower stand and quite an angle and there you got a little too much guitar but Eddie’s vocals were powering through and could be heard clearly over the band. My only complaint would be the bass could be a little louder, as could the drums – at least the Kick Drum. Oh and my ears are still ringing the next morning… ear plugs next time.

Brendan is right: (This blog is off to a good start – Brendan) Some audiophiles buy certain CD’s because it makes their system sound good.  I am one of those but I have an excuse, I am in the business, so I need those type of CD’s to demo the systems to clients in the best possible way.

There is another positive to this, in hunting down these special recorded CD’s I sometimes come across amazing new material that I would never know existed because is not popular main stream music. Discovering these artist opens up doors into other worlds of music experiences.

OK, my 10, Hmm only 10 albums that is very tough! There are so many choices? Where do I begin?  Ok right let’s start from the begining where it all started in the early 70’s..

In no particular order of quality:

Pink Floyd – Dark side of the moon  (1973)
Favourite songs: Us and Them,  actually, the whole album, a masterpiece of recording engineering and music that still stood the test of time 36 years later!

Yello - Stella (1985)
Favourite songs: Vicious games, Oh Yeah. Clinically clean recordings with very tight and super fast punchy bass

Dire Straits – Brothers in arms (1985)
Favourite songs: Everything on this album. One of the great male voices of our time. This can test the richness of your system’s midrange  with crystal clear guitar notes to test your tweeters to the limit… a favourite demo CD of Hifi shops for many moons and even today.

Leonard Cohen – Essentials
Songs of his whole amazing career from early 70′s to his resent 2009 tour. Too many favourite songs, his unique deep voice test the realism of any system.

Toni Childs – Keep the faith (2008)
Favourite songs:  Dream That we Dream of and When it’s All Said and Done. To me one of the most unique female voices. This can paint a 3d picture of her in your room, definitely goose bump stuff.

Jacques Loussier -  Plays Bach (2006) ,,
Favourite songs: All the tracks. A must for classical Jazz demos. The kick drum, piano and bass guitar work is the most realistic sounding on any CD I have heard. It’s like you are there.

Stanley Clarke – The Toys of Men (2007)
Favourite Songs: Jerusalem, most delicate clear treble you can find. All Over Again, bass guitar work that will stun you.

Fourplay – The Best of Fourplay
Favorite songs: Chant, Bali Run and Between The Sheets.  A combo CD of the  great hits of the famous four Jazz players; Bob James on Keyboards, Piano, Lee Ritenour guitars, Nathan East bass guitarist and Harvey Mason drums.  Excellent detail recordings that will test the whole frequency range of your system, from the deepest bass to rich midrange and crystal clear top end.

Air – Pocket Symphony (2007) (Brilliant Choice Tiens, I’m jealous I didn’t have it on my list – Brendan)
Favourite songs: Photograph, One hell of a party. Crystal clear recording with very accurate bass lines.

Tiesto – Elements of life (2007)
Favourite songs: Do you feel me? fast punchy bass. Elements of life, fast punchy bass very complex rhythms to test the speed and control of your system.

So again, what is your Top 10? We’d love to hear from you and maybe you can introduce us into some new music.

There’s two types of audiophiles in this world. People that like music to make their system sound good and people who like a system that makes their music sound good.

I definitely fall heavily into the second category. If the music I’m listening too is rubbish, I don’t care if the treble extends beyond what I can hear and the imaging sounds out of this world. Ok songs like these a great for showing off, but do you ever sit down and listen to the entire album (or even get through one track!) when listening to this type of music??

Ok enough about that, you get it, for me its music first, reproduction second, well kind of, you can’t have one without the other.

So what about the other group, the music lovers who want their music to move them, to transform them out of their living room and feel like their getting their own private performance by Ryan Adams. This is what its about for me.

So after saying all that here’s a list that will keep people in both groups happy. These are all amazing albums in their own way, some quite different from each other (so if you like one artist here don’t assume you will like them all!) but I consider these to be my current Top 10 ‘Audiophile’ Albums. I’ll get Tiens to put his list together as well, although I think he will struggle even more than I did to keep it to 10 albums.

In no particular order:

 
 
 
 
Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities
Favourite Songs: Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, Four Fingered Fisherman, Ocean Breathes Salty

Ryan Agams – Love is Hell
Favourite Songs: Political Scientist, Please Do Not Let Me Go, The Shadowlands, World War 24

Radiohead - Kid A
Favourite Songs: Everything in its Right Place, Kid A, In Limbo

Josh Rouse – Home
Favourite Songs: Laughter, Marvin Gaye, 100m Backstroke

Angus & Julia Stone – Chocolate & Cigarette’s
Favourite Songs: Mango Tree, Paper Aeroplane, Babylon

 
 
 
 
Ben Harper – Welcome to the Cruel World
Favourite Songs: Whipping Boy, Forever, How Many Miles Must We March

SJD - Southern Lights – Pic ‘n’ Mix Edition
Favourite Songs: The Place is Surrounded, The Witness (Phelps & Munro Remix), Track (James Duncan Remix)

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Favourite Songs: Listomania, 1901, Rome

Sigur Ros – Takk
Favourite Songs: Hoppipolla, Saeglopur, Se Lest

Dave Matthews – Some Devil
Favourite Songs: Dodo, Trouble, Stay or Leave

What do you think? Do I have bad taste in music? Do I need new ears because these sound rubbish compared with real “Audiophile” music? What is your Top 10?

You don’t often hear people talking about old music. Its always “have you heard the latest…” or “I just got the new…. album”, which don’t get me wrong is a great thing. Discovering new albums and hearing bands progress over time compliments what music is about. But not this post. I was in Real Groovy this week and as well as some new music I picked up some great old stuff for next to nothing.

It got me thinking about classis albums that I would never trade…. (I should probably never say never but….)

Here’s what I thought were classic albums from my collection, classic for a number of reasons, a lot of the time it was the artists break through album, sometimes their debut, other times just a dam fine collection of songs.

Badly Drawn Boy – About a Boy
Band of Horses – Everything All The Time
Basement Jaxx – Remedy
Beastie Boys – Ill Communication
Beck – Odelay
Ben Harper – Welcome to the Cruel World
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Howl
Blur – Parklife
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
Coldplay – Rush of Blood to the Head
Counting Crows – August and Everything After
Damien Rice – O
David Gray – White Ladder
Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
Dimmer – You’ve Got to Hear the Music
Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms
Doves – Lost Souls
Elbow – Asleep in the Back
Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape
Groove Armada – Vertigo
Ian Pooley – Since Then
Jeff Buckley – Grace
John Coltrane – Blue Train
Josh Rouse – Home
Jurassic 5 – Quality Control
Killers – Hot Fuss
Kings of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak
Lemon Jelly – Lost Horizons
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Moby – Play
Nightmares on Wax – Carboot Soul
Norah Jones – Come Away with me
Oasis – What’s the Story Morning Glory
Pearl Jam – Ten
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
Portishead – Dummy
Powderfinger – Oydessey Number Five
Prince – Diamonds & Pearls
Prodigy – Fat of the Land
Pulp – Different Class
REM – Automatic for the People
Radiohead – The Bends
Red hot Chilli Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Ryan Adams – Love is Hell
SJD – Southern Lights
Shihad – The General Electric
Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
Sola Rosa – Solarized
Soundgarden – Super Unknown
St Germain – Tourist
Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway
Supergrass – In It For The Money
Supergroove – Traction
The Black Seeds – On the Sun
The Chemical Brothers – Dig your own hole
The Strokes – Is this it
The Verve – Urban Hymns
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
Thievery Corporation – Mirror Conspiracy
Travis – The Man Who
Turin Brakes – The Optimist
U2 – The Joshua Tree
Zero 7 – Simple Things

Ok so there is a bit of a mix there and will have missed some classics without a doubt….

What is in your collection that you consider to be a classic?

Ok so, if you haven’t heard of Bon Iver then read on, if you have then you probably already own the album and know exactly what I’m about to say.

Background (care of Wikipedia):

Bon Iver is the name of American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon’s current band and most notable music project to date. The band now also consists of Mike Noyce and Sean Carey. The name, Bon Iver, is a corruption of the French “bon hiver” (good winter). Vernon independently released Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago in 2007, the majority of which was recorded while spending three months in a remote cabin in Wisconsin.

So as I said before, if you haven’t heard of Bon Iver, you will want to. Go buy From Emma Forever Ago, it is a beautiful album from this talented singer song writer. If you like things acoustic, heartfelt and intimate then you must have a listen. There is plenty of videos on youtube to if you do a quick search for Bon Iver to get an idea, one of my favourites is actually a cover of his song flume by the also very talented Kina Grannis.

Here’s Bon Iver’s albums at Real Groovy: Bon Iver

Get into it!