Daily News Channel
Jeremy Elwood’s Notes The Foxglove Ballroom, Welington, May 14 Can’t say I expected to have my brain working during a comedy show. Normally it’s just relaxing over a beer, switching the brain off and (hopefully) trying not to pee from laughing
CAVEMAN Caveman (Shock) There are moments of melodic and cleverly arranged promise in this New York indie five-piece’s follow-up to 2011’s CoCo Beware (which this reviewer quite liked as a slow-burner but which mostly smouldered beneath the radar) but the band’s tendency to sand the edges off their tracks with synth-washed soundscapes prevents most tracks from blossoming, let alone bear any fruit. The repetition of building each track to a crescendo using that layered synth becomes tedious, detracting from layered mid-album highlights Over My Head and Pricey whose great reverbed guitar lines and thoughtful change-ups are drowned by that familiar cadence
HI BEAMS Javelin (Southbound) Cousins Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford’s daft-as-a-brush party tunes (grab a copy of 2010’s No Mas for a fun listen) were musical montages cut-and-pasted with joy and guaranteed to raise grins on the dancefloor.
Veteran American Idol judge Randy Jackson said he was leaving the Fox TV singing contest to focus on his other business ventures.
Wellingtonian Cory Mathis has taken the top prize in the first Young Cartoonist Awards. The illustrator and digital artist, currently studying illustration at the Learning Connexion in Taita, won $5000.
Multi Grammy-award winning hip hop artist will.i.am performed at a company party in Auckland last night. Calling the former Black Eyed Pea “one of the world’s biggest superstars”, Hallenstein’s Brothers enlisted him to DJ at its “Ultimate After Party”.
More scenes are set to be filmed in Wellington for the final two instalments of The Hobbit trilogy.
BETTER TOMORROW Etana (FMR/Universal) While Rita Marley might be the undisputed queen of reggae, Etana has finally made an album that establishes her credentials to be considered a serious contender to the throne. Her blow-away performance at Raggamuffin in Rotorua earlier this year, introduced her to reggae’s second spiritual home and her third album shows a fierce determination to get back to her Kingston roots and exudes a major dose of positivity.
Justin Bieber has shown he’s a real trooper when he played on after being attacked by a crazed fan in Dubai. The 19-year-old singer was at the piano performing the last song of his set, Believe, when a fan stormed the stage and grabbed him form behind, Dubai paper The National reported
With thousands of Good Sorts entries every year, the toughest part of host Hadyn Jones’ job is deciding which community-friendly Kiwi qualifies for the exclusive list. The light-hearted weekly One News segment, which looks at everyday New Zealanders helping others and the community, has being going since 2007 and with only 48 Good Sorts pieces done each year, Jones admits it is tough deciding who makes the cut.