From teaming up with fellow greats like Santana, JJ Cale and Buddy Guy to an uncredited appearance on a song by the Beatles, the legendary guitarist always added magic
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Back to the island…Around the world, music arenas are being used as mass vaccination centres to protect millions from Covid-19. Auckland’s Spark Arena, however, is one of the few that is able to play host to actual gigs these days, thanks to New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic so far. Here, people are getting back to doing what people did before the pandemic: making plans with friends on a Friday night, buying each other overpriced drinks and forgetting themselves while singing along to their favourite songs in the dark. It’s a massive privilege to do so.
And it’s clearly one not lost on whoever’s in charge of the PA system tonight, who chooses to blast out the late John Clarke’s unofficial Kiwi national anthem ‘We Don’t Know How Lucky We Are’ from the 1970s before Crowded House take to the stage. Tonight’s gig is a sell-out, meaning around 12,000 people are packed under one roof to hear one the country’s most-beloved bands, who have joined thousands of other Kiwis in returning home to the island since the pandemic began.
‘To The Island’ is also the name of the band’s latest single from forthcoming album ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’, which marks a new chapter for a band whose latter years have been touched by tragedy following the deaths of drummers Paul Hester and Peter Jones, in 2005 and 2012, respectively.
Founding members Nick Seymour and Neil Finn are now joined by the latter’s sons, drummer Elroy and guitarist and singer Liam, alongside keyboardist Mitchell Froom. Populating your band with your kids is a genius way to keep it looking fresh and youthful, helping Crowded House to avoid the pitfalls of so many long-in-the- tooth acts, whose arena gigs tend to suffer from self-indulgent noodling and bloated setlists.
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It also doesn’t hurt that frontman Neil – now also a member of a little band called Fleetwood Mac – looks and sounds like he’s been drinking from the fountain of youth himself. His silver-grey mop of hair is so big and full it’s akin to a birds’ nest that’s been assembled from all the missing follicles atop the considerable number of bald blokes in the audience tonight.
The unmistakable, uplifting, crystal clear opening chords of ‘Weather With You’ set the tone for the night. Seymour – who like me has a better idea than most in the crowd as to what the rest of the world is going through at the moment having spent 2020 in Europe – is the visual embodiment of the joyful mood, bouncing around the stage in a black kilt looking like he’s having the time of his life.
By the second song, a raucous ‘Mean To Me’ from the band’s self-titled debut album, Neil Finn has already broken a guitar string, the sign of a good gig he says, before ripping into another classic from the same album, ‘World Where You Live’. Having formed in Melbourne in 1985, Crowded House are now on the verge of releasing their first new album in a decade and tonight’s set is peppered with a handful of snappy newies that are among the catchiest songs of the night, highlighting the band’s continued vitality.
Overflowing with character and energy, ‘Whatever You Want’, ‘Playing With Fire’ and ‘To The Island’ all bode well for ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’, which comes out in June having been recorded in LA before the pandemic bit and finished off remotely in 2020. ‘To The Island’ is a particular earworm, with lyrics capturing the mood of many returning Kiwis these days: “You found me lost in the chaos and confusion / You said it’s possible that we can be free.”
Perhaps understandably given the amount of time since people were last able to do this, the Auckland crowd is a little rusty when it comes to mass singalongs and is slow to get to its feet, despite the punchiness of tracks like ‘Whispers & Moans’ showcasing the band’s trademark, jangly guitars.
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It could well be that they’re happy just to sit and enjoy the transportive, sparkling melodies of ‘Pineapple Head’, sounding evermore the antipodean cousin to The Beatles’ ‘Norwegian Wood’. Meanwhile, the pristine sound goes some way to making up for what arena gigs like these always lack in intimacy.
Curiously, it’s not until “the moodiest song of the night,” as Neil puts it, that the crowd does rise to its feet, as a lush ‘Four Seasons in One Day’ sweeps into ‘Private Universe’ against a dreamy on-screen backdrop that recalls the Milky Way. All of tonight’s visuals are closely tied to nature and New Zealand’s stunning landscapes, with the stage made up to look as if the band is playing in a volcanic crater.
The encore sees the band pay tribute to those on the frontline who helped make the band’s tour possible by keeping cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand’s community to a bare minimum. A stirring, piano-led cover of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ is dedicated by the band to these people, the very best of us, who are ensuring New Zealand remains one of the few places on earth where being in the same room as thousands of other people is a reality, rather than the premise of a fever dream.
Heroes around the world continue to put themselves at risk in order to keep people safe and the Bowie classic will justifiably soundtrack depictions of the fight against Covid-19 in years to come. By then, hopefully such untroubled, escapist and euphoric communal live experiences like tonight’s will have become commonplace again, not just in New Zealand, but around the world.
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Words + Photos: Nico Franks
Join us on the ad-free creative social network Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks, exclusive content and access to Clash Live events and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.
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Highlights of this day in history: Britain enacts the Stamp Act on its American colonies; The ‘Garbage Barge’; Skater Tara Lipinski reaches the record books; The Beatles release ‘Please Please Me’; Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber born. (March 22)
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These are heady times for music documentaries. Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” won the audience and jury prizes at the Sundance Film Festival; docs about the Beastie Boys, Taylor Swift, the Bee Gees, the Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Billie Eilish, Britney Spears and many others have gotten attention lately; high-profile narrative directors Peter Jackson, Edgar Wright and Todd Haynes have made recent or upcoming docs about the Beatles, Sparks and the Velvet Underground, respectively; and films on Tom Petty, Charlie XCX, Guy Clark and Poly Styrene are on the bill at the South by Southwest festival.
One advantage of docs like those has always been that they have a built-in, passionate audience of fans for the subject’s music – and in many cases, filmmakers aim their work at the devotees who will savor every detail and sing along with every word. I might embrace each nuance in “Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You,” you might catch every offhand reference in “Beastie Boys Story,”and there might be enough of us that neither of those films needs to work hard to appeal to viewers who aren’t already fans (though there are pleasures awaiting them, too). Wright and Haynes no doubt want to use their films to make new converts for Sparks and the Velvets, but for many music docs that’s a luxury, not a necessity.
“Alone Together,” the Charli XCX film that premiered at SXSW on Thursday, falls into the category of a fan movie. But it’s not just a movie for the British singer-songwriters’ fans – it’s a movie about them, too. It’s a film that delves into an artistic collaboration between Charli and her audience, not between Charli and her fellow musicians. In the end, it’s as much a celebration of that audience as it is a portrait of the artist they love.
Also Read: ‘Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free’ Film Review: Ragged Documentary Fits the Man and the Music
Directors Bradley & Pablo (Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler, music-video veterans making their first feature) came on board early in the pandemic, when the singer who was born Charlotte Emma Aitchison announced to her online fans that she was going to use the lockdown to make and release an album in five-and-a-half weeks. During the process, she announced on social media that she planned to share demos, rough mixes and the rest of the process with her fans, an avid community known as “Angels,” who had helped give her a huge LGBTQ following.
In the film, the announcement of her plan comes after an introductory section in which Charli essentially narrates a capsule version of her own history, doing so in a way that sounds a little rote but also touches on serious issues. “Even as I found success, I still felt lost and unfulfilled,” she says, setting up a theme of self-doubt and fragility that will run through the film. (She’s also the film’s executive producer.)
In her Zoom announcement of the album, Charli tells her fans, “I really need to be creative … to make sure my mental health is staying on track.” To document the process, she sets up multiple cameras in the Los Angeles home she shares with her boyfriend and two managers, while the directors also make use of extensive footage from and interviews with her fans.
Also Read: From Billie Eilish to the Bee Gees: Why Music Documentaries Are Booming
The film jumps from songwriting to demos to fans to videos and back; as befits a project based around social media, it’s full of quick hits and jittery cuts to the point where nothing really has an impact unless you’re obsessive about the people onscreen. It’s a look inside an insular (but inclusive) community that will no doubt enrapture members of that community even if it doesn’t quite connect with those outside the community.
The story of making the album that became “How I’m Feeling Now” isn’t always laid out clearly: At one point Charli has only written two songs and says she’s so far behind schedule that she’ll never finish in time, but before you know it she’s done exactly that. “It takes a lot to say this, but I’m really proud of myself,” she says when she finishes the album, and it’s easy to wish that we knew more about what she actually did.
But the heart of “Alone Together” isn’t her process but her struggles with depression and doubt, and the way in which she and her audience shelter, encourage and even save each other. While you can view the film as a companion piece to “How I’m Feeling Now” that is mostly aimed at people who love that album, it also has moments where it transcends that to become is an intimate examination of community in a time of isolation. And in those moments, the film has an impact that reaches far beyond what it shows you about one artist’s music.
Related stories from TheWrap:’Operation Varsity Blues’ Film Review: Doc Peels Back the Layers of the College Admissions ScamSXSW Film Director on How Festival Hopes to Stand Out From the Virtual CrowdDemi Lovato Says She Was Sexually Assaulted, ‘Left for Dead’ After 2018 Overdose
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‘McCartney III’ has been turned inside out…Paul McCartney has revealed the full tracklisting for a re-worked take on his home recorded hit ‘McCartney III’.
The final part in a loose trilogy of sorts, ‘McCartney III’ was recorded at home in Surrey, with the Beatles legend writing, performing, recording, and producing the record on his own.
A critically acclaimed hit, ‘McCartney III’ is set to be turned inside out on this new project.
‘McCartney III Imagined’ lands on April 16th – order it HERE – and it features new music from Beck, St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, Damon Albarn, Blood Orange, and more.
Whether it’s a remix or a complete re-work, each artist is tasked with interpreting a song from ‘McCartney III’ in their own way.
Dominic Fike offers an interpretation of ‘The Kiss Of Venus’ – tune in below.
Tracklisting:
1. Find My Way (feat. Beck)
2. The Kiss of Venus (Dominic Fike)
3. Pretty Boys (feat. Khruangbin)
4. Women And Wives (St. Vincent Remix)
5. Deep Down (Blood Orange Remix)
6. Seize The Day (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
7. Slidin’ (EOB Remix)
8. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Damon Albarn Remix)
9. Lavatory Lil (Josh Homme)
10. When Winter Comes (Anderson .Paak Remix)
11. Deep Deep Feeling (3D RDN Remix)
12. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Idris Elba Remix)*
* Physical release exclusive track
Join us on the ad-free creative social network Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks, exclusive content and access to Clash Live events and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.
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Woody Harrelson’s character in the 1997 movie Welcome to Sarajevo has this great line, where he rakishly declares at one point, “You know, only two good things ever came from England. One, America. Two, The Beatles!”
The statement is a gross exaggeration, of course, but it’s the kind of thing that can feel at least directionally accurate to a certain kind of music fan. Most of the music I love came from there, which probably explains my addiction to a new quasi-morning radio show I recently discovered and have incorporated into my daily routine. Everything I love stays in heavy rotation on this show’s playlist, from the The Clash to New Order, The Stone Roses and, of course, The Fab Four. In fact, that trick is how Spotify was able to hook me me on The Get Up, a new … well, think of this still relatively new Spotify playlist (which is really a radio show) as the sonic love child of a podcast and a playlist, mixed with the trappings of a traditional radio show format. There are hosts to keep you entertained and informed, A-, B- and C-block segments, and, of course, plenty of music. Music that Spotify pulls from the bands, artists and genres that it already knows I love. Like on one particular morning, when The Get Up hosts Kat Lazo, Speedy Morman, and Xavier “X” Jernigan had finished one of their segments, and the show then delivered up the first chunk of music algorithmically tailored to me. Next thing I knew, Peter Hook’s sublime, propulsive bassline that opens the track Age of Consent on New Order’s staggering 1983 album Power, Corruption & Lies was filling my ears. And I knew I was home.
“It’s fresh, it’s new, and it’s also super personal,” The Get Up cohost Kat Lazo told BGR in an interview, along with her two other cohosts, about the show. “What we hear a lot about our dynamic is that it’s so inviting to, like, listen to three friends kind of talk about what’s going on in the world, whether that’s pop culture, whether that’s the news. It has that personal touch, and on top of it — the way it’s different from a traditional FM radio show — everyone is going to get different music.
“I may get some songs from Bad Bunny, some hip hop, some R&B, and that kind of touch also personalizes the experience for users.”
The show, which launched in October, had already picked up more than 1 million listeners by January, the streamer told Bloomberg. Not bad for a show that kind of bobs and weaves around users’ expectation of what, as a music lover, you can expect these days from a streamer like Spotify, and from an offering that has elements of both playlists and the produced segments of a podcast. “The Spotify team did a great job of explaining to us what their vision was, and kind of how Kat, X and I fit into the mold to help achieve that,” Morman told BGR. “This is something that didn’t exist before, and being part of the team to help bring it to the mainstream was really exciting to all of us.”
For the “A” segment of a recent episode of The Get Up earlier this month, things kicked off not unlike how a high-profile traditional radio show — say, The Breakfast Club in New York City — might get things started. It has that same feel, while also, because it’s Spotify, being something different. “Here, as always by my side, are the homies,” Jernigan began, before detouring to offer a personal shout-out to a friend who happened to be celebrating five years of sobriety that day and who was also a Day 1 listener of the show — a man who works in sanitation for the city of New York, who Jernigan went on to praise as “a great father, hard worker, (and) he’s somebody who inspires me, whether he knows it or not.”
Then he handed things over to Morman, to deliver the day’s headlines. “To start with a little bit of good news, the newly approved vaccine from Johnson & Johnson could be arriving in the (US) today …” That led to some back-and-forth between Jernigan and Morman, with both men agreeing that everyone needs to “buckle down, so we can get there together,” and that “If you look closely, guys, you can almost see light at the end of the tunnel.”
According to Morman, the produced segments — which, again, are separate from the stretches of the show wherein Spotify serves up music tailored to each listener’s unique tastes — include a generally news-heavy A-segment, followed by more talk and banter, as well as pop culture, in the next segment. Which, in turn, is followed by more heavily produced, thought-out segments in the blocks after that.
The segments also feature recurring bits like “Stump X,” wherein Jernigan answers trivia questions asked in an effort to trip him up (he’s one of those frustratingly dedicated polymaths who, you know, knows a little about a lot). All in good fun, of course.
It quickly becomes clear to new listeners that The Get Up is trying to be a new kind of morning show, but, this being a streamer as global as Spotify, you can of course also listen whenever you want over of the day. The show is ready for listeners every Monday through Friday, starting at 7 am Eastern at www.spotify.com/thegetup.
More than that, though, this is another example of where Spotify as a global entertainment giant is headed — with non-music offerings, especially podcasts, increasingly in the streamer’s sights. A few days ago, a forecast predicted that Spotify’s podcast listening audience will overtake Apple’s for the first time this year, thanks in part to locking in deals with creators like Joe Rogan, as well as President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, for exclusive podcasts. As The Get Up shows, there’s a lot more now to keep you hooked and entertained inside the Spotify app, beyond simply using the service to stream your favorite Post Malone track for the umpteenth time.
“We’ll keep adding new things in as we go,” Jernigan tells BGR. “And what’s dope is, I want to be clear about this, they didn’t just have this ready-made show and it was all set up and we just came in as hosts. We also helped to build what the show sounded like from the beginning, and the producers were also good about inviting us into that process, asking us questions about what we feel is missing from morning radio.
“For us, we wanted a show that didn’t have a negative tone. We wanted this to be a show that was positive and helped ease you into your day with a smile.”
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Adds Lazo: “We have listeners in Alaska, in Hawaii, and people calling in from Vermont and Washington state” — all over, in other words. The cohosts also did their first Instagram Live (@thegetupmorningshow) a few days before chatting with BGR. “On Instagram, we hear from people that this is now part of my morning routine — but for some people, their morning is starting at nine, while for other people it starts at noon. And we’ve heard this is part of people’s workout routine.”
As far as what Lazo thinks is the best thing about the show right now, “You know what I’m loving? I’m loving the love we get from our listeners. It’s amazing that in a moment when we’re so isolated, when we’re all in our individual homes, we the hosts have the pleasure of interacting with one another on a daily basis remotely — sometimes I even forget, oh that’s right! An entire nation is listening to this! So, when people give feedback on Instagram or by calling in, I think that’s my favorite part. Just reminding each other we’re not alone, we’re not isolated. That there’s an entire nation that is relating and that wants this type of content.”
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From the Beatles to Lil Wayne…Gabriel Garzón-Montano has never wanted his art to stay in one place.
A true multi-hyphenate, his work darts from one space to the next, merging remarkably disparate elements into a unique, vivid whole.
New album ‘Agüita’ is out now, a song cycle that dares to be different, the expression of a songwriter who taps into nuance, and excels at contouring varying aspects of sound.
A project that lingers in the memory, Gabriel has just shared a new remix of ‘Mira My Look’, one that finds half.cool re-working the original.
Gabriel Garzón-Montano comments…
“half.cool did the beat on the album. They went crazy with this remix. Andrekza is too funky. The way she vocalizes tickles my ankle bone. She added a gorgeous verse. I was like a little kid in the studio watching her process and started scribbling an alternate verse for the ending. Andrekza’s energy in the studio is a gift. Confidence and love.”
Clash took a moment to catch up with Gabriel Garzón-Montano and explore his Influences…
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Lil Wayne – ‘A Milli’
Don’t go in her garden and don’t smell her flowers.
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Prince – ‘Adore’
P is flexing here. The song. The vocal performance. The through composed arrangement. The virtuosity. The way this track opens up at the end into a heavenly orgasm… it’s a masterpiece.
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OutKast – ‘Liberation’
P-funk group vocals in my childhood. The luckyness of having these accompany me through my pubescent transitions! These marked me. A new style of octave doubling and bringing church music to hip-hop.
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Biggie Smalls – ‘Unbelievable’
earth. Balanc3. POCKET. Love.
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The Beatles – ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’
John’s melody and his voice. It brings me to tears. This music meets my needs in a compassionate way.
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‘Agüita’ is out now.
Photo Credit: Jack McKain
Join us on the ad-free creative social network Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks, exclusive content and access to Clash Live events and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.
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