A Million Pleading Faces

  RECORD REVIEW : Baldleaf , The world is not against you (demo collection) (2024)   truly, we are living in a golden age of shoegaze music. we haven’t seen such a strong surge of guys in desperate need of haircuts with offset guitars and big pedalboards paid for by their parents since the nineties, and at least then, those guys didn’t have their unfinished tracks thrown up on the internet thanks to the home recording equipment that’s become standard for all the new bands by now (if Kurt Cobain was 18 today he’d have a soundcloud and you’d hate him). it’s not uncommon to find bands putting out records before they’ve made any connections, before they’ve played any shows, or even, before they’ve finished the songs, as is the case here. normally the demo compilation is reserved for artists who’s raw songcraft and compelling personality lend these releases an anthropological sense of view, or artists who have a fanbase so rabid they’re desperate for any scrap of information abou...

  RECORD REVIEW : Elizabeth Sanctuary Welding School for Girls , Reduction/Jane Eyre (2024) you could have turned endure looking like you'd rather not and learned if it's still choking on your right and if it looks exactly like you thought even though it exists in a world outside of what i normally cover, Reduction / Jane Eyre , debut single from the Elizabeth Sanctuary Welding School for Girls (aka the single hardest artist to bring up in conversation when someone asks “who are you writing about this week?”) is either an introspective masterpiece or completely unlistenable, but i think it’s fucking brilliant. i’m a rock music writer, honest. i didn’t pay attention in art classes and i don’t go to drone shows. for a release like this i have absolutely no lexicon to fall back onto. this is one of those songs were i feel i need to be smarter to actually understand it. but i love it anyway. it’s a rare thing in music to convey a sense of shaking fragility without getting on the a...

  LIVE REVIEW: PLUG, Milktooth. 13/03/24, San Fran (eyegum wednesday), Wellington.     it might be corny, but I really do like an eyegum wednesday. the beer's cheap, it's classier then the usual rock and roll venue and, thanks to the curators, the bands are always pretty damn good. unfortunately i've found my self in the minority here because last night's show was less then packed. i got there just after it started, but before the bands went on, and there was at most 10 people in the room. it's only the second one they've done all year, have we already moved on? you people disappoint me. i got the odd impression that most of the people in the venue were there on accident, because they wanted to go to their favourite bar and unwind, not to see a rock show. during opening band PLUG , the talking at the back of the room was louder than the band, and the smoking area was stuffed full of people the entire night. in spite of these initial setbacks, people did start ...

RECORD REVIEW : The Pink Frosts , Unremarkable Product (2023)   do you ever feel like you’ve forgotten to do something?  the deadlines for this blog are quite frankly ridiculous considering no one reads it and i do it for zero money. original content, every single week. i’ve been busy, ok? and my scheduling got kind of fucked up because some people haven’t gotten back to me when i needed them to. i wanted to have a new interview for you all, but the ball got dropped last minute so i’m forced, for the first time to draw from my emergency stock of older releases to retrospectively review.  ironically, the band du jour , The Pink Frosts , have a new record out on friday, but no one gives me advanced copies of stuff, so i’m covering their last release, a three track EP from november last year. if i was smart, i’d just push my schedule back to friday and review the new thing then, but i’m doing this here and now, for you, dear reader. it’s poor timing on my part, but when is...

  LIVE REVIEW: Cruelly, Sleeping Village. 6/03/24, San Fran (eyegum wednesday), Wellington.   students rejoice, it’s the first eyegum wednesday of the year! Roll up, roll up to smoke cigarettes on the historic balcony, drink an overpriced beer and get yelled at by kenny. personally, i came to the gig purely to see sleeping village. ever since i advertised it’s existence early this year i’ve been waiting for the opportunity to actually attend the event. I spent all wednesday shaking in anticipation as i plugged away at my lectures. a quick social call first (i make a fool of myself at tekken), then we’re off to the races.   after the necessary sensory input to start a proper night out is consumed (1 cheese, grilled. 1 beer, 330 ml can.) i can begin the walk to san fran, only 15 minutes around the corner. i arrive shortly after the doors opened yet the place is already filling with people. By the time the first band is ready to go on the crowd is too thick to properly...

RECORD REVIEW : Mudgoose , Bird Tears (single) (2024) allow me to paint a picture for you. i’m sitting splayed on a couch in the corner of a cuba street flat. there’s long abandoned coffee mugs, half eaten dinners and ripped up gig posters lining the walls. around the room, neon coloured string zig zags in unclear patterns, mirroring the conversation that's drifting lazily through various topics. a terse roommate dressed in heavy metal regalia stares us down and leaves quickly. my presence here is tolerated mostly because i’m the only one who knows the secrets in Doom II.  the man who i’m currently backseat driving through his digital demon murder spree is the songwriter and frontman behind indie rock's Mudgoose , who’s been beginning to enjoy some time in the sun as of late. his track, Where? is nearing four thousand spotify streams (“that’s my creep, man”, he confides to me later, “i wanna stop playing it to mess with people”) and his other single this year, Here Come The P...