Pop CultureNovember 17, 2016

New Zealand Music Awards: Finalists and regrettable predictions

Guest writer

Henry Oliver embarrasses his future-self with probably-inaccurate-and-on-the-internet-forever predictions for tonight’s New Zealand Music Awards.

The biggest night of the musical year – the New Zealand Music Awards, brought to you by some communications services company – is tonight! And just in case there’s still a market for predictive data-driven (okay, not really) journalism after a year-and-a-half of presidential elections, I thought I’d put my hard-earned reputation as the Nate Silver of New Zealand Music on the line with a bold prediction for every category (except the quantitative ones which you can just google for yourself). How could this possibly go wrong?

Album of the Year

Aaradhna – Brown Girl
Broods – Conscious
Fat Freddy’s Drop – BAYS
Hollie Smith – Water Or Gold
Tami Neilson – Don’t Be Afraid
The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams

Aaradhna. Brown Girl is an excellent, super-relevant album in content with multiple musical sweet spots. Plus, it’s perfect time to reward an artist with a decade of excellent releases. Even though she won big three years ago and those big nights rarely strike twice, I see a big night for Aaradhna in my crystal ball.

Single of the Year

Aaradhna – ‘Brown Girl’
Broods – ‘Free’
KINGS – ‘Don’t Worry Bout’ It’
MAALA – ‘Kind of Love’
The Naked and Famous – ‘Higher’
Shapeshifter – ‘Stars’

‘Brown Girl’. Sorry for the obvious – it’s just a fucking great song of politics and pathos. Check out our interview with Aaradhna where she talks through the songs and all the issues surrounding it here.

Best Group

Broods – Conscious
Fat Freddy’s Drop – BAYS
The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams
Sol3Mio – On Another Note

My head says Broods – because they’re super successful and most strongly represent the hopes and dreams of the New Zealand post-Lorde slip-stream – or Fat Freddy’s Drop – because they’re Fat Freddy’s Drop and New Zealand loves Fat Freddy’s Drop – but my heart says The Phoenix Foundation, particularly off the strength of the album’s title-track, which perfectly sums up, in a way I hadn’t heard before on a rock album, that moment you realise life’s not going to be everything you thought it might. As someone who’s given up on many dreams, it struck a chord. But, still, the judges probably don’t care about the striking of my chords, so … Broods.

Best Male Solo Artist

Avalanche City – We Are For The Wild Places
Dave Dobbyn – Harmony House
Lawrence Arabia – Absolute Truth
MAALA – Composure

Lawrence Arabia – he doesn’t seem to love awards, but awards judges love him. And so do I.

Best Female Solo Artist

Aaradhna – Brown Girl
Hollie Smith – Water Or Gold
Ladyhawke – Wild Things
Tami Neilson – Don’t Be Afraid

Aaradhna. As above. Every year, one act wins an armful of awards. I’m putting my money on this being Aaradhna’s year. If Broods and Tami Neilson (another judge’s fave) win all the categories, I’ll have to crowdfund the settlement of my gambling debt.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 21: Aaradhna poses with the award for album of the year during the New Zealand Music Awards at the Vector Arena on November 21, 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Jason Oxenham/Getty Images) — AARADHNA AT THE 2013 VNZMAS, THE LAST TIME SHE WON A BUNCH OF AWARDS (PHOTO: JASON OXENHAM/GETTY IMAGES)

Breakthrough Artist of the Year

KINGS – ‘Don’t Worry Bout’ It’
Leisure – ‘All Over You’
nomad – ‘Oh My My’
SACHI – ‘Lunch with Bianca’

Um… Leisure? Everyone seems to like them way more than I do but, hey, you can’t argue that they haven’t had a ‘breakthrough’ kind of a year. Their singles have been blogged about endlessly by bloggers on their blogs and their deluxe LP has been available for purchase at (at least one of) Auckland’s coolest cafes. Maybe it’s not them, it’s me.

Best Rock Album

Beastwars – The Death Of All Things
Jordan Luck Band – Not Only… But Also
Villainy – Dead Sight

Beastwars. The opening riff of ‘Call the Mountains’ should win this award on its own.

a0342341486_10 — BEASTWARS RISING FROM THEIR TABLE TO COLLECT THE AWARD

Best Pop Album

Avalanche City – We Are For The Wild Places
Broods – Conscious
MAALA – Composure

Honestly, I’m not sure. These are all capable, skillfully made albums, none of which lit a fire anywhere near my ass. Let’s just call it for … Broods. People still love Broods, right?

Best Alternative Album

Lawrence Arabia – Absolute Truth
The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams
Silicon – Personal Computer

I know … I awarded predictive awards to the other two finalists in this category, but if I’m going with the album I’ve just flat out wanted to press play on the most, it’s Silicon’s Personal Computer. I even wrote a profile of Kody Nielson (plug!) while listening to a lo-fi advance stream on this album on repeat for hours and never got tired of it. I’m even listening to it now and it still sounds great – shiny, intense and plain weird.

Best Urban/Hip Hop Album

Aaradhna – Brown Girl
PNC – The Luke Vailima EP
SWIDT – SmokeyGotBeatz Presents SWIDT vs EVERYBODY

Just gonna add to Aaradhna’s armful here, but, even though they’re probably going to lose, you should definitely check out these other two. Local rap music doesn’t get the attention it once did, but these should’ve been more central on people’s radar – PNC the veteran, SWIDT (‘See What I Did There’) the rookies.

Best Roots Album

Fat Freddy’s Drop – BAYS
Rob Ruha – Pūmau
Unity Pacific – Blackbirder Dread

Fat Freddy’s. Fun fact: The Drop hold the best press events in the game – oysters, paua wontons, fried chicken, all made by the band. It’s legit.

FAT FREDDY'S DROP'S WORLD FAMOUS PAUA WONTONS (Image: Sarah Hunter) — FAT FREDDY’S DROP’S WORLD FAMOUS PAUA WONTONS (PHOTO: SARAH HUNTER)

Best Electronic Album

Electric Wire Hustle – Aeons
Opiuo – Omniversal
Pacific Heights – The Stillness

Pacific Heights – the solo project of former-Shapeshifter Devin Abrams – gets just far enough away from being ‘New Zealand’s James Blake’ to be a winner.

Te Māngai Pāho Best Māori Album

Dennis Marsh – Maori Songbook 2
Kirsten Te Rito – Āiotanga
Rob Ruha – Pūmau

Dennis Marsh. I need to know more about the connection between Māori music and country music. Shit, did I just pitch myself in public? Maybe. If you’ve got an in on this, pitch me. I’m also obsessed with people who achieve big things at an, um, advanced age and since Marsh released his first album well into his 30s, he’s made like 25 of them and Maori Songbook (the first one, not this one) became his first No. 1 on the New Zealand Album Chart when he was 60. Amazing!

Best Worship Album

Edge Kingsland – Edge Vol. 3: The Common Good
Grace Vineyard Music – Seek You
LIFE Worship – By My Spirit

I’m gonna level with you – I haven’t listened to any of these albums, so let’s take a stab in the dark and say … Edge Kingsland. Why? I like the name Edge Kingsland and ‘The Common Good’ is vaguely admirable.

Best Classical Album

Anthony Ritchie and Ross Harris – Fjarran
Kenneth Young – Shadows and Light
Zephyr – Zephyr

Again, I’ll admit – I’m not familiar with any of these. Let’s go with Anthony and Ross. I like to think of them as best buds who just love making classical music together. (Please tell me I’m right.)

PROBABLY NOT ANTHONY RITCHIE AND ROSS HARRIS (PHOTO: BENGIN AHMAD/FLICKR)

People’s Choice Award

Broods
Fat Freddy’s Drop
KINGS
MAALA
Sol3Mio

This award will depend entirely on turnout. Who will go to the polls? Who’s got the most effective ground game? Who’s got the best social media strategy? Who’s micro-targetting the likely voters? If the turnout skews young, Broods have the advantage in a tight race taking the plurality of votes but not the majority. If it leans older, Sol3Mio have 76.8% chance of a majority. If it’s somewhere in between, Fat Freddy’s with a 64.1% chance of taking 43.8% of the vote – short of a mandate, but enough to take the trophy. But, if there’s some unforeseen forces in the electorate, who knows what that could mean for all-caps new-comers MAALA and KINGS.

Legacy Award

I reckon it’s going to be … Dave Dobbyn! Nah, just jokes. SPOILER ALERT: It’s Bic Runga.

Highest Selling Single

You could probably look this up somewhere, but that would spoil the fun, so I’m not going to do that for you.

Highest Selling Album

As above.

Radio Airplay Record of the Year

Same. (Though maybe you can’t look that up. I’m not sure. But I almost never listen to terrestrial radio, so your guess is as good as mine.)

International Achievement

Broods? Broods.

Tune in tonight (8:30pm on TV3) (or come back here tomorrow) to find out how wrong I was.

Keep going!

SUMMER 2009 PRESS TOUR

LightboxNovember 17, 2016

We’re with them: A salute to the ambitious women of the small screen

Peter Douglas

Guest writer

SUMMER 2009 PRESS TOUR

Pete Douglas seeks to find some light in the dark as we near the end of a horrific year, lining up some incredible TV women who have risen above The Worst Men Ever.

2016 has been a rough year, especially so for women. Between the subhuman treatment of a young woman by the Chiefs rugby team, to mass hysteria about remaking a 30-year old action/comedy movie with female leads, to that interminable bore Bono being named one of Glamour’s women of the year, you really couldn’t make this shit up.

As darkness fell last week, and the reign of blathering orange horror began in earnest, some political pundits just couldn’t help but put the boot once more into womanhood in 2016. Apparently, Hillary Clinton was a weak candidate all along, and there had been a bevy of better (predominantly white and male, surprise surprise) options available.

The subtext entirely this: a dude would have won. While it would be far too glib and simplistic to attribute the fresh hell which we now inhabit to a question of gender alone, it’s hard not to feel like it played a huge part.

And so I have decided to turn to my old friend – television – for some solace, and present some of the great female characters of the small screen who have been consistently let down by this cruel world, but have continued to survive and thrive like a seedling growing from a pile of horse manure.

Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation

During season four of Parks and Recreation, Leslie progresses her political ambitions by running for Pawnee city council. It’s a role she is eminently qualified for, given her background in the local community and civil service. However, she comes up against Bobby Newport (expertly played by Paul Rudd). He’s an entitled, imbecilic, childlike, buffoon with no political chops, who decides to run for council on a whim.

leslie

Sound familiar?

It’s probably little wonder the Parks and Recreation writers felt it appropriate to pen a letter from Leslie following Trump’s shock triumph.

Mindy Lahiri in The Mindy Project

Inspired by creator Mindy Kaling’s own mother, who was a successful obstetrician/gynecologist, Mindy’s struggle is more subtle. Whether it is battling for career advancement or having a say in the run of the practice where she works with her male cohorts, Mindy uses her persuasive smarts to make her voice heard.

mindy

Ultimately, the age-old question of balancing a career and a family can be ignored no more. Unlike the Sandra Bullock rom-coms which our hero loves so much, The Mindy Project tackles these modern dilemmas in a much more realistic way.

Alicia Florrick in The Good Wife

Meet a successful lawyer, forced to put her blossoming career on hold to support her philandering husband Peter. After her husband is caught is implicated in an embarrassing sex scandal, which ultimately has legal ramifications, Alicia is left with nothing.

Sound familiar?

SUMMER 2009 PRESS TOUR

Despite a 15 year absence from the workplace, Alicia starts again at the bottom of the career ladder, and kicks butt working her way back up to the top again.

Cheryl West in Outrageous Fortune

Local hero Cheryl West kicks off Outrageous Fortune when her husband, and patriarch of the criminal West family, Wolfgang West is put in prison for four years. Over six seasons, Cheryl tries to keep the family on a straight and narrow path.

The ultimate Kiwi battler, Cheryl starts an underwear company to make ends meet, and manages to keep the rest of the West clan out of jail for the most part, despite Wolf’s best efforts to get them back into the criminal game.

Liz Lemon in 30 Rock

Liz is the creator and head writer of The Girlie Show – a fictional NBC sketch show that forms the setting for 30 Rock. When the world’s most charming misogynist Jack Donaghy hits the scene, he quickly changes the show to T.G.S. with Tracy Jordan, noting the need to attract more young male viewers to the timeslot. To use a New Zealand TV phrase, he “duked” it.

lizl

When Liz protests Jack says “I like you – you have the boldness of a much younger woman”. Blergh.

Karen van der Beek in Californication

Being Hank Moody’s long-term romantic partner is a tough gig, but especially so when you are also the mother of his child. Novelist Hank (David Duchovny) womanizes, drinks, does drugs, gets arrested and goes to jail for having sex with a minor.

cali

Through it all is Karen (Natascha McElhone), working tirelessly protect their daughter Becca from his destructive behaviour. Now that, is the mother of all tasks.

Skyler White in Breaking Bad

5x14_-_skyler_on_road

As the long-suffering wife of Walter White in the Shakespearean tragedy of Breaking Bad, Skyler White is mostly kept in the dark about Walter’s terminal illness and criminal activities. Eventually, she becomes so entangled in the web of deceit herself that she doesn’t know how to extract herself and her family without acting out of pure desperation. This is Cheryl West dialled up to 11.

Watch all of these wonderful women and more on Lightbox today:

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