Amplifier

01.10.07

Summer's a knockin' at the door and the icebergs they are a meltin'...

That means it's time to announce the first instalment of international and local artists to join the annual travelling jamboree.

AUCKLAND BDO 2008:  The Clean, Katchafire, The Phoenix Foundation, SJD, Cut Off Your Hands, Young Sid, Antagonist, Motocade, White Birds and Lemons, Shihad and overseas acts;  Rage Against the Machine, Bjork, Arcade Fire,  LCD Sound System, Dizzee Rascal, Billy Bragg, Hilltop Hoods, Paul Kelly, Battles,  Grinspoon plus many more to be announced.

From Dunedin 1978 to the USA 2007 where they are about to be recording a new album, no band says "New Zealand" like The Clean - Flying Nun originators and quite possibly this country's greatest ever band. With a sea of famous fans from Pavement to Yo La Tengo and an inspiration to at least three generations of young Kiwi bands, The Clean are an institution. By the chaos of their own design, the trio of David and Hamish Kilgour and Robert Scott have perfectly managed their band's existence so that their haphazard, on-again off-again attitude to it serves their own collective creative drive and continues to only enhance the musical legend that is The Clean. Essential.

Huge selling roots reggae act Katchafire have turned themselves not into just local heroes for a blunted generation, but they have become fixtures on an international touring circuit playing everywhere from Europe to Hawaii. Katchafire will leave everyone skanking the end of the night away at the Auckland local produce stage and going home happy.

With their smoky fog machine set to full blast, the sound of The Phoenix Foundation matches indie songwriting with tasteful washes of electronica. Their last album was a superb, well-deserved Gold-seller in NZ and they have been getting increasing attention around the world, particularly through writing the soundtrack to the recent kiwi indie hit flick Eagle Meets Shark. The Wellington sextet have a brand new album coming out in October on Flying Nun. They're much loved by fans of sophisticated indie pop and airy noneventful woozy skunkfestery alike so will bound to be a hit on a warm summer's big day out in Auckland.

We've always got time for a bit of SJD. The live expression of their music is a loose collective of individually-talented musicians, quietly led by Sean James Donnelly (the SJD) but their recorded output is less raw, more focused, and with increasingly slick production values that defy the otherwise back-shed kiwi aesthetic. Now with a hugely acclaimed fourth album released, you do know what to expect from SJD - music that is clever, thoughtful and harmonically on the button - but the entity known as SJD is an ever-changing and elusive beast. Don McGlashan once described SJD as "like this impressionist painter that's been let loose in a recording studio". Like a mighty tree in a forest, SJD are quietly developing into a timeless NZ institution. 

BDO welcomes energetic tearaways and the NZ band of 2007 with the most frequent flyer miles, Cut Off Your Hands. And they sound a little something like this: if you took one heavy-duty blender and added the likes of Gang of Four, The Cure, Death From Above 1979, Joy Division and Split Enz, you'd get a pretty good idea of their thrashy, angular, arty dance rock, that's complemented by the emotional vocal gymnastics of lead singer Nick Johnston. These guys are becoming renowned for frenzied live shows that have gone down a treat supporting visiting internationals like Bloc Party and they have just signed to the incredibly cool UK label 670, home of The Streets. With EP number two Blue On Blue released this year they're winning those indie kids over left, right and centre. Catchy tunes, hot guitar licks, hella fun! What more could you ask for?

Young Sid is seriously touted as the next big thing in NZ hip-hop and very much the real deal with his tales from the streets of South Auckland, Young Sid's dropped a serious bomb with his just-released debut The Truth. Hits "Hood Like Me" and "Feel The Pain" are leading the way for the album which was recorded for the country's up and coming hip-hop label Move The Crowd in New York City with the legendary producer Cochise (Remy Ma, Beatnuts).

Antagonist are New Zealand's most prominent and hardworking underground act. Since the release of their debut album "These Cities, Our Graves" (August 06) Antagonist has spent countless hours in the van touring the nation and then some - they've played with Hatebreed, parkway Drive and countless others as well as being named top local act on the Auckland leg of Taste of Chaos 07. Antagonist live are a brutal combination of power and enthusiasm, members bouncing off each other, with engaging guitar breaks, epic melodic scales, brutal breakdowns and punk influenced groove held down by precise, technical drumming, solid bass lines and antagonising vocals. Top hardcore act in the country bar none.

Auckland indie pop stars Motocade have powered themselves to the top of the local heap with smart tunes mixed into an organic sounding indie art rock with a peppering of punk that is at once familiar, yet new to these shores. Maybe comparable more to British acts, it is their blurring of a geographically fixed and identifiable sound that makes them more universal, less typical. They cite Kings of Leon, Radiohead and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as influences and have an excellent indie album Into The Fall out now. 

White Birds and Lemons lead the Auckland North Shore sound contingent for 2008 across the bridge to the BDO and these kids from the sleepy shores of Devonport offer up a youthful tangent on a Bluesy-Psychedelic-Folk-Rock-four piece. Rocking out in an enjoyable way, they've gathered some serious momentum and signed with the local branch of Liberation Records to release their debut EP last month. 

THE BIG DAY OUT
FRIDAY JANUARY 18th 2008 MT SMART STADIUM

Tickets $120 +bf*. Strict limit of 4 tickets per customer. Available from all Ticketek Outlets, phone and credit card bookings 0800 Ticketek (0800 84253835) or www.ticketek.co.nz , Real Groovy, Sounds, ECM, STA Travel, all good music stores nationwide and from  www.bigdayout.com