Music biographies: Picturing Canterbury

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Pop up music on Tuam Street: Picturing Canterbury

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Freegal is fab

I am a Freegal virgin no more. When I first learned of this, I was intrigued by the idea downloading free music. It made me think I could join the hip young things I know who don’t think twice about downloading music, videos and movies – but this was legal and legit and did I mention free?

Sitting on my couch one night recently with my laptop (Ok I was watching Britain’s Best Home Baker at the same time), I headed to Freegal via the link on the main library web page. First step was to supply my library card number and pin number (if you don’t have a pin or can’t remember it, pop in to your local library or call the main library phone number – 03 941 7923 and a friendly librarian sort that out for you).

Once I was logged in with my card, the entire Sony catalogue was opened up to me. Think vast and then add some more songs for good measure. Every genre you could think of was there, nicely listed down the left side of the page, from the latest hit to obscure Bolivian music, and you can also find an artist alphabetically. I like slightly obscure stuff, Appalachian Mountain Music for one, and there it was.  Not knowing which of my favourites were signed by Sony meant I had to trawl a bit, but by doing that I found some fascinating stuff.

There is a limit of three songs per person per week, so I guess if you wish to download a whole album, it might take a few weeks, but I quickly downloaded three odd companions, KD Lang’s stunning version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, the new duet by Pink and Nate from ‘Fun’ ‘ Just give me a reason’ , and an obscure American bluegrass song.

Roll around next week when I can download three more!

Have you given Freegal a go yet? What have you found and downloaded?

 

Libraries humming with music this weekend

From the New Zealand Army Band at Hornby Library to Matt and Hamish playing jazz at Parkland to the Natural Magic Pirate Band bringing hearty music to Central Tuam Library, libraries across the city will be humming with music this weekend and every weekend of NZ Music Month 2013. Check our calendar of events and come along and enjoy.

 

We appreciate your appreciation! The Gladstone

Saturday night at the DB Gladstone – ah, those were the days. The dingy old pub with cracked stucco walls, peeling paint and the stench of beer seeping from its pores slouched next to its corporate neighbours on the corner of Peterborough and Durham Streets and sneered at their clean concrete exteriors. In the ’80s, the Gladstone was the venue for great gigs. I remember seeing legendary Kiwi bands such as The Wastrels, the Dance Exponents and Pop Mechanix there and The Gordons in all their edgy glory.

It was the place to go. Saturday nights, I’d put down my Victorian poetry texts, backcomb my black and purple hair, squeeze into my drainpipe jeans, strap on my winkle pickers and head to the Gladstone to scowl with friends in dark corners.

Many of us did our courting there, pogo-ing into the night as the bass thudded on and the singers’ voices became husky with the clouds of cigarette smoke that engulfed us all.

I hope with the rebuild that there will still be room in Christchurch for a bit of grunge. We need a few haunts in which we can lurk and not feel obliged to be perky and bright and have our teeth whitened to fit in with the crowd.

Keeps it real somehow.

 

With bold ukelele and kazoo

I’m showing my age a bit when I hark back to childhood memories of Kiwi music and music making. My family wasn’t particularly musical but they had plenty of friends who were and childhood was punctuated by occasions where “aunties” and “uncles” revealed fascinating skills as people gathered around for a singsong.

A cousin I admired terribly was a dab hand at the piano – he could strum every popular song in great style and his parents sometimes kept him up past his bedtime to provide music so they and their friends could dance and sing. Mum’s best friend was a piano teacher but it was her husband who was a revelation on the banjo.

Most magic of all were occasions when my dad’s tramping mates gathered – they could muster a pretty good skiffle group complete with tea chest base. Dad’s good mate Ted was a dab hand at ukelele and kazoo and everyone would join in the  songs from the trampers songbook as well as popular songs. Sitting outside under the stars at a barn dance listening to all this was a great experience for a kid.

Turning on the radio you could hear Peter Cape singing Down the Hall on a Saturday night or Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line – both of which songs resonated with me as I had experienced the kid’s joy of sliding over the powdered floor before a dance at a local hall and I’d been on an exciting night train trip on the Main Trunk Line.

I can capture memories of this time by  going to New Zealand Folksong - a wonderful website where you can find words, music and performances of a fantastic array of Maori and Pakeha songs from early days to recent times, the school yard and much more.

 

Balloon D’Essai and the Haemogoblins at the Gladstone, 1983: Picturing Canterbury

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The Eastern – Genuine Christchurch Rock

The Eastern embody Christchurch spirit through and through. They’re a band of hard-working, no-nonsense folk who sure haven’t let an earthquake get in the way of making music. The perfect band to open NZ Music Month at Christchurch City Libraries at Central Library Tuam tonight at 7pm.

Chart, Christchurch’s music website, defines The Eastern as ‘ a string band that roars like a punk band, that swings like a gospel band, that drinks like a country band, that works like a bar band, that hopes like folk singers, and sings love songs like union songs, and writes union songs like love songs, and wants to slow dance and stand on tables, all at the same time.’ I think this sums things up pretty well.

I first came across The Eastern at The Mussel Inn in Takaka and was blown away by their talent, diversity and passion for music. Charismatic Adam McGrath has a voice as gritty as Waimak gravel and complements Jess Shanks who sings like a angel.

The Eastern is based in Lyttelton. Their first self-titled album was released in 2009, charity record The Harbour Union debuted at 20 in the NZ Charts, and their most recent recording Hope and Wire will be used in the soundtrack behind the upcoming television mini-series by the same name which portrays life in Christchurch after the quakes.

These hard core musos have played around NZ and the world and have opened for acts such as Fleetwood Mac, Justin Townes Earle, Vic Chestnut and Jimmy Barnes. They average 200 shows a year and will be performing along with Luckless and Katie Thompson at Central Library Tuam tonight at 7:00pm. Don’t miss them!

 

Free legal music downloads with Freegal

Free legal music downloads with Freegal! No, I am not talking about random artists and songs that no one else has heard of (though there are many of those as well), I am talking top 40 artists such as Pink, Justine Timberlake, One Direction and Carrie Underwood.

If your interests are less mainstream, then Freegal offers over 100 genres from Euro-house to thrash metal which will no doubt give you something to sing along to or show off your best Dad Dancing moves! There are literally thousands of artists and hundreds of thousands of songs.

 How does it work?

• You get to download three songs a week with your library card number and PIN from home or in any library – though you will need a USB stick or the like if you do it in a library.
• All songs are DRM-free MP3s, and you can keep them for as long as you like. These MP3s will work with almost every portable device and can be transferred on to CD.
• Each song has a sample clip you can listen to before downloading and if the download is interrupted you can download it again (only twice)  from “recent downloads”.
• Please note  that downloads cannot be reversed under any circumstances, even if you cancel the download.
• The download counter resets itself at midnight on Sunday, Eastern Standard Time, which is Monday afternoon around 4pm  for us. So you can download another three songs. Unused downloads do not carry over into the next week.

Please note: If your library card is barred for any reason you will not be able to access Freegal.

If your music collection is in need of some fresh tunes then start here at Freegal – the free music download service from Christchurch City Libraries.

 

Together alone : the story of the Finn brothers – New Zealand e-book month

To rattle off the hits of Neil and Tim Finn reads like a checklist of recent pop history.

And to think it all began in sleepy rural Te Awamutu – a town whose name had a ‘truly sacred ring’, as Neil would famously recount – where Brian Timothy Finn fell in love with the Beatles, an obsession that would also work its way straight into his younger brother Neil’s DNA.

Success for the brothers was a long time coming: it took several turbulent years in Split Enz – an art-pop band Neil would join in 1977, despite Tim’s reservations – before they produced a genuine hit and connected with the mainstream.

You can read Together alone as an e-book from our Overdrive collection.

Together alone is also available as a paper book.