A Million Pleading Faces

RECORD REVIEW : Carb on Carb , Take Time (2024) if i, randomly, compiled a list of who i thought were the ten nicest people in the new zealand music scene (i have done this) and released it (i will not do this), i’m assuming most of you wouldn’t be surprised by Carb on Carb taking a pretty high spot. that’s ten nicest, not friendliest, not most likely to let me into gigs for free, i’m talking about selfless, genuine, human niceness. i’m yet to meet actually anyone who has anything seriously awful to say about the emo-indie two piece, which is something i can’t say for most of you.  besides, you know, helping found Girl’s Rock/To the Front , one of the few actually worthy music organisations, and running the record label (Papaiti) which is single handedly preserving the entire history of manawatu-whanganui emo music (i’m serious. we had, like, a whole scene and everything. we from the west coast did midwest emo in new zealand long before you did. it’s rare for me to say nice things...

LIVE REVIEW: Chlorine w/ B.O.G, Mudgoose. 17/05/24, Valhalla, Wellington.   i must admit, i have my own problems with valhalla as a venue. i hate vaping, i hate hoodies with writing on the arms, i hate dudes who wear shorts and i hate hardcore, still, i must concede that they have one of the best sounding stages in all of wellington, plus cheap drinks and a nice vibe, so when they put on bands that aren’t usual crapola metal garbage, i like to be there. i mostly went to catch Mudgoose , to be fair, and because i knew some of my friends would be around, but i was open to new things. informants told me that headliners Chlorine are a shoegaze band from some part of auckland that no one else i know is from, and that they’re hitting it big on spotify thanks to some careful playlist promotion. cool, whatever. i intentionally didn’t listen to any of their music because i wanted to go in raw for this, and i got the sense that hearing them before i head out would discourage me from ever m...

INTERVIEW: Reclusive Noise Popstar Elizabeth Sanctuary Welding School for Girl s spills the bean s on Process and Persona .   i’ve been chasing this person on and off for a few months now, after making a less than spectacular pair of first appearances and a semi-obsession with their first single , we finally met under better terms at a cramped newtown noise show house party (how many people with unwashed op shop clothing and facial piercings does it take to fix a laptop that’s been completely doused with smirnoff? like 3, and the crowd either doesn’t notice it or think it’s part of the act.) and melted the ice with a couple of brewskis. i’ve always said that anyone who’ll wear a computer mouse as a belt is someone worth listening to, and her work, which exists in a league of its own, proves me right as it deservedly rises above the chaff in the noise/lofi/folk/singer-songwriter vector that’s making up most of the new releases for this year so far.  i present to you an intervi...