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After investigating the Star Wars prequels and Paul the football result predicting octopus, pop culture documentarian Alexandre O

Vicki Anderson argues that it’s time New Zealand Music Month became New Zealand Musicians Month, Unheard Music Month or Non-Mainstream New Zealand Music Month.

New Zealand Music Month wheezes to a halt this week. Did it make a difference to you

In previous years the event was launched with much fanfare, T-shirts and gimmicks. This year’s marketing campaign seemed to mostly consist of whispered gig announcements and defensive tweets.

Only four years ago I was dispatched at 6am on a Saturday morning to Christchurch Airport where Opshop was playing one of 10 gigs in one day around the country to mark music month.

Perhaps it was an omen when their plane encountered a bird strike and was grounded.

This year’s Christchurch launch was discreet by comparison.

Marlon Williams headlined a gig at New Brighton Library.

Beforehand I asked him if he believed celebrating music month was necessary.

“It seems like a good thing in terms of awareness but it often does turn into a novelty showcase. It’s a weird way to quantify music. I’m on the fence. It’s just another gig to be honest,” he said, eloquently summing up the way most musicians feel about it.

New Zealand music has developed to become an essential part of our national identity. In all genres of music in New Zealand, we have musicians who have achieved national and international recognition.

While it has undoubtedly achieved its goal of increasing mainstream awareness of local artists since its inception in 2001, the current form of NZMM is past its use-by date.

It was established in 2001 by the New Zealand Music Industry Commission (NZMC), a charitable trust. The Government established the NZMC in 2000 to foster New Zealand popular music composition, performance, recording and marketing, and to promote New Zealand music here and overseas.

In the beginning it was about having New Zealand music “everywhere” in the month of May “every year” – but over a decade on it’s become a bit stale.

Every year the same established artists are dragged out and paraded around for a bit, alongside new current industry favourites with cynically timed new releases who are touted as “the next big thing for now”.

It’s all so boring and predictable.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem with music month lies largely at the feet of those in the “industry” who suck an income from musicians. Music month needs a makeover. It needs to have the “industry” around it surgically removed in order to survive.

What about renaming it NZ Musicians Month or Non-Mainstream NZ Music Month

Money which currently goes to fund industry teet suckers could instead be put into an artists’ fund. The public could democratically vote on which musicians should get, say, $10,000 each and these nominated musicians would become an artist in residence for the year.

What we have now is a little like Valentine’s Day – it is the musical equivalent of overpriced roses. You know you should show your love every day but Hallmark (or, in this case, the NZ Music Commission) likes to hit you over the head with a yearly reminder to make a cheesy gesture.

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Some of these industry people spend a year and tens of thousands of taxpayer monies planning music month while the very musicians they claim to be supporting contemplate the sale of vital organs just to get enough money together to buy petrol for the next tour. It would be laughable if it wasn’t true.

I met a North Island teet sucker from the music industry while judging the final of the RDU RounDUp band competition last Friday night.

I nicknamed him comic book guy.

For a brief period I saw Christchurch music through his industry eyes. As I did so I felt as if I should have had a piece of straw dangling from my mouth.

He didn’t dance. Instead he stroked his chin.

He said things like: “This is rather Christchurch” (not in a good way) and “I bet this band read Pitchfork”.

“It’s nice to get down here occasionally and see what’s happening in Christchurch,” he said, looking around somewhat disdainfully.

He had been hoping that Christchurch musicians would be feeling a little angrier post-quake. He felt the Christchurch scene was “anaesthetised”.

“Doprah, Salad Boys, Zen Mantra, Aldous Harding, Melted Ice-Cream, Yumi Zouma,” I shouted at him above the noise of the crowd, before drawing breath. “Asian Tang, X-Ray Charles, Delaney Davidson, Ahoribuzz, AOS, Tiny Lies, The Eastern. . .”.

But he was too busy talking about how much better Auckland bands were to hear me.

We all know that judging art is impossible and band competitions are not created equal.

In many ways such competitions are a microcosm of the wider industry.

Everyone who peddles the industry of music is looking for the right band that will fit their so-called “right” format.

I believe that in a band competition the best band on the night should win, regardless of what genre pigeonhole someone wants to shove them into.

Music is heart. Music is soul. But for those in the industry, music is money.

Sparkle Kitty won the 2014 RounDUp band competition.

Four out of five judges voted for them. I congratulate them on their win. I like their liberal use of glitter as much as the next girl. They were fun, quirky and they made me dance.

But I was the only judge who didn’t vote for Sparkle Kitty.

When it became awkwardly apparent that I was not going to have my mind changed by a uniquely weird type of music judging peer pressure, comic book guy patronisingly suggested it was time I went outside and had a cry.

You know, because I’m a chick.

Kudos to RDU and Dux Live for continuing to stage this event for rising musicians – this is what music month should really be about.

For me the winner on the night was the consistent The Near Veddar, a bunch of 18 to 21-year-old jazz school students whose rock songs – Suffocate and Nausea – I am still humming several days later. Come to think of it, I should have told comic book guy to “Get Outta My Face”.

The Near Veddar are a super-tight band with memorable songs. I look forward to watching their career develop. Cough. After all I remember the year Shapeshifter placed second in a RounDUp final.

Villain were another favourite, they had me floating in a Sonic Youth-type soundscape. Foldback galore, wink. They have a live album coming out in a month or so – I suggest you grab it. Terror Tapes put on a high energy show, as did pop punk outfit This Disaster (find their EP on iTunes) and Apollo Suite were sweetly groovy.

Music month is over for another year which means we can all get on with the business of enjoying music free from any lame industry-applied expectations.

No matter what the Government appointed “commission” says, it’s always the right time to go out and support our phenomenal live music scene, from the established artists who don’t get radio play to the rising stars and the venues who provide the spaces for us to appreciate it.

You never know, you might just find your new favourite band in your own backyard as I did last week.

THE DETAILS:

This long weekend go and hear some great Kiwi sounds: Tonight: Tahuna Breaks at Dux Live. Saturday: Sherpa with X-Ray Charles at the Darkroom; AHoriBuzz at Winnie Bagoes City; One Waka at the Brewery; Jordan Luck Band at the Ferrymead Speight’s; Barry Saunders, Lindon Puffin and Matt Langley at the Wunderbar. Sunday: The Chills at Churchills.

– The Press

REVIEW:

DVD review : Frankie

(BBC, M)

It was all high drama on the red carpet today as a man hit actor Brad Pitt in the face while he was signing autographs at the Hollywood premiere of a film starring the heart-throb’s partner Angelina Jolie.

Pitt, a Golden Globe-winning actor, was at the premiere of Maleficent, at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California, when the man leaped over a fence and hit him, Sergeant Leonard Calderon of the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Pitt quickly shook off the attack and returned to signing autographs. Authorities quickly subdued the man, who was arrested for misdemeanor battery and remained in police custody, Calderon said.

”The officers who were handling him said it looked like it was intentional, but at this point, it remains to be determined,” Calderon said.

The New York Post reported that the man punched the Fight Club star in the face. The Post also identified the suspect as Vitalii Sediuk, the man who attempted to crawl under America Ferrera’s gown at the Cannes Film Festival this month.

The suspect did not appear to be armed and investigators had not yet interviewed him to determine a motive, Calderon said.

”Maleficent” is Disney’s modern reimagining of the ”Sleeping Beauty” fairytale, and Jolie stars as the film’s villain.

George Michael has supposedly been rushed to hospital.

The 50-year-old Careless Whisper singer is said to have fallen ill last week, which caused him to collapse in his Highgate, North London home.

A spokesperson for the London Ambulance Service confirmed to British newspaper The Mirror two units were sent to Michael’s neighbourhood last Thursday after a friend called emergency services for help.

“We were called just before 8am on May 22. We sent two ambulance crews and staff treated one patient, a man, who was then taken to hospital,” the representative stated.

Witnesses told the publication emergency services left the home with Michael in tow around noon, four hours after they arrived at his house midmorning.

Michael’s agent refused to comment on whether the musician has been released from medical care and she also kept mum on whether drugs were involved in the situation. She also declined to make a statement on why it took two ambulances to safely transport him to hospital.

“George Michael was in hospital for routine tests but there is nothing further to say,” his representative said.

Michael drove his car into a storefront in July 2010, and he later served four weeks in prison for his DUI.

And following this incident the singer experienced a number of harrowing near-death events, including being unconscious for three weeks in December 2011 after falling ill with pneumonia.

In May 2013 Michael fell out of his moving vehicle while driving on a motorway in the UK, which resulted in a head injury.

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– Cover Media

Behind Robert De Niro’s tough, on-screen exterior

Eva Orner’s filmmaking career has taken her to the some remote parts of the world, but the Australian Oscar-winner’s next project will bring her home to work for the first time in a decade.

She plans to use her mix of insider knowledge and outsider perspective to make a feature documentary called Bloody UnAustralian, a critical look at Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers.

The title comes from her memories of growing up in Melbourne in the 1970s, she says. “When people did something that wasn’t decent, you’d be like, ‘That’s bloody unAustralian’. It was a nice, old-fashioned part of vernacular that applies to this, which is something that has become very Australian

A man was led away in handcuffs after attacking Brad Pitt on the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of Maleficent.

Pitt was apparently unhurt and soon resumed signing autographs.

Witnesses saw the man from the fan area jump over a barrier to the red carpet at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Tuesday (local time) and rush at Pitt.

Security guards wrestled the man across the barrier and called police, who arrived and led the man away.

Pitt kept greeting fans and walked into the theatre.

Pitt was at the event supporting his partner Angelina Jolie who stars in the new live action spin on Sleeping Beauty.

Phone and email messages for representatives for Pitt and Disney were not immediately returned.

Police had no immediate information on the man or the incident.

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– AP

Ladi6, aka hip-hop soul queen Karoline Tamati, is heading on tour in August.