A LOW HUM - November Newsletter
Newsletter has info on: A LOW HUM NYE - BIG CITY DREAMS SCHOOLS IN BULLS (Presents Toro Y Moi + Captain Ahab) DISASTERADIO (New Video + Shows) CALH 2011 SECRET KNIVES (Internet goes crazy over SK) INTERNATIONAL DIY TOURING BOOK
A LOW HUM NYE - BIG CITY DREAMS
I’m so excited about the NYE party. I’m all nostalgic for the A Low Hum NYE city parties in 2007 and 2008, and with the ridiculous lineup I’ve put together, this party is going to be nuts!
Around 25 acts playing over two levels on three stages for 12 hours. Crazy. More acts TBA, but so far, check below!
DISASTERADIO, BANG BANG ECHE, THOUGHT CREATURE, SIGNER, RED STEERS, SECRETS, FISTFUL OF GEMS, PIKACHUNES, TOMMY ILL, OLD GREY WOLF, MONSTER MASH, BRAINS, FOREST SPIRITS, GUCCI GOO, SLEEPY AGE, SURF FRIENDS, MOUNT PLEASANT, FABERGE EGG, LITTLE BARK, BONO, DJ’s + MORE TO COME!
Dec 31st. 6pm-6am. The Garden Club. Dixon Street, Wellington
Tickets only $30 from alowhum.com or just pop into The Garden Club (day or night) and grab some from there. More info here
Facebook event here
SCHOOLS IN BULLS
Last year the mysterious promoter Schools in Bulls put on a sweet double headline act of The Dodos and Daedelus a few days after CALH 2010. Well, SIB is at it again and is putting on a crazy double bill of US bands Toro Y Moi and Captain Ahab.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169349153087025 For more info, on the acts and the party.
SCHOOLS IN BULLS presents
Toro Y Moi (US)
Captain Ahab (US)
+ special guests
The Garden Club on Feb 15th.
Only $25
Tickets from alowhum.com and The Garden Club from Dec 10th
DISASTERADIO
NEW VIDEO
Well, other than reminding you that his new amazing album was just released as a free or pay-as-you-like download HERE, the big news is the awesome new video for ‘No Pulse’ made by Simon Ward is online now!.
The same team of Luke, Don Brooker and Simon Ward who worked on the legendary 'Awesome Feelings' clip, came together to put this one together. It’s amazing. Watch it now!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGhsoS0hDxk
The video has only been online for a fortnight and already clocked up almost 5000 views.
SHOWS
The next Disasteradio show will be the A Low Hum NYE show in Wellington, and he is also playing with Ratatat in January.
We’re currently booking the Disasteradio 2011 World tour, so if you’re from anywhere outside of NZ and you want him to come party with you, reply to this email and we’ll make it happen!
CALH 2011
Next year’s Camp(us) is the 5th anniversary and I wanted to make it special, so I’ve spent the last 4 months watching multiple live shows almost every night of week in various cities in NZ and in Australia, spending countless hours researching bands online, leaving no stone unturned to put together the best line-up ever. I've never made anywhere close to this amount of effort before.
With an absolutely awesome lineup of NZ acts, Australian and international guests, it’s going to be stupid amazing, and with a bunch of awesome non-band stuff happening too. I thought topping 2010 was gonna be tough... but its happened.
TRAVEL
Have you sorted out your travel yet? Do you know how you’re getting to Campus? There are a few details on the website here , but feel free to email me if you need some help. If you’re coming from Australia, there is currently a 48 hour sale on at Qantas if you still haven't gotten your tickets. I’ve got buses going to/from Wellington and there will also be shuttles going to/from Bulls to the site as well.
Cars are of course also more than welcome with lots of parking available.
TICKETS
Tickets started selling faster around two weeks ago (not exactly sure why) but yeah, start getting your money together now. Click here to enrol NOW. If you’ve been to a camp in the past and are broke and not sure when you’ll have money in time, send me an email: help@campusalh.com and we’ll sort something out. Don’t miss out on this big celebration.
CALHTV
I’m still putting together ideas for the TV station at Campus, if you have some ideas for a show. Get in touch! calhtv@campusalh.com
CALH After Parties.
All the after parties have been announced now. Check ‘em out, get ready.
BANDS
I’ve stopped accepting band applications via email as I’m very close to finalizing line-up, however, if you are playing a show in Wellington in the next month, invite me and I’ll still come and check it out (if I can).
Had over 500 bands email me, plus the ton of bands who don’t apply but yet I still check out, it’s been tougher than ever and I've had to say no to many great bands. I could have easily ran two events this year with totally different line-ups and they woulda both ruled. If I haven’t invited you to play “officially” yet, there are still renegade slots available (though they are filling fast – so, sort it quickly).
Please don't email me after receiving this saying "are we playing?", you'll hear from me if I have room.
SECRET KNIVES
Well, three days after my last newsletter the internet went apeshit over the Secret Knives album ‘Affection’, being download more in one day then the first two weeks of release. If you haven’t download it yet, I’m not sure why not… it’s free and quite amazing, just click here to get it
The very week of CMJ in New York where bands from all around the world flew to NY to get buzzed about, Secret Knives all week were amongst the most blogged artists in the world (according to ‘Hype Machine’) without leaving town! On the 19th of October, Secret Knives even became the 2nd most blogged about artist in the world (after Kanye West).
For almost a whole month, a track from 'Affection', The Northwest States was top of the elbo.ws world chart, which again is another aggregator of blog buzz around the world.
People everywhere are loving the new album, especially this guy from Last.fm who has apparently listened to Secret Knives 4000+ times in the past month.
If you want to check out what just a few of the blogs and online mags are saying, check out below:
“ultra-melodic chiming guitar…swirling electronica and hazy vocals…fully captivating listen front-to-back”
Music for Rants
“As it turns out I’m not the only one enamoured with this New Zealand band.“The Northwest States”, another track from Affection has taken the internet by storm over the past couple of weeks.”
5 score pachyderm
“Seems like there’s quite a buzz surrounding the fairly unheard New Zealand band known as Secret Knives and their latest release. After listening to it a couple of times I can understand why”
Above and Beyond Magazine
“Seriously, Affection is one of the best things I've heard in a while.”
The Big Beat
“I've been spending a lot of time listening to indietronic / shoegaze-revival bands lately. In particular, the New Zealand band Secret Knives have really caught my attention in a big way. Their album Affection is like a gorgeous, hazy daydream, heavy on effects and chiming guitars. “
Given and Taken in Ink
“evocative lyrics delivered in dreamy vocals, awash with spidery guitars and sweeping atmospherics, muted basslines that heighten the otherworldly soundscapes. Affection is a fantastic release, by a fantastic talent “
Sonic Masala
As well as blogs, tracks The Northwest States and The Shining have ended up on all manner of online mixtapes, blogcasts and receiving random radioplay on lots of US stations, but probably the most random was this http://www.publicradio.org/columns/dinnerpartydownload/2010/10/episode-67-judd-apatow-beer-tsunamis-and-kiwi-tracks.html, where Northwest States was included on a “Dinner Party” podcast (which features also an interview with Judd Apatow)
Awesome Wellington dudes Glass Vaults have popped their remix of Black Hole online for a free download http://glassvaults.bandcamp.com/track/black-hole-glass-vaults-remix
If you'd like to support Secret Knives you can still opt to make a $10 donation and in return recieve a set of prints based on the album artwork and also a download code to receive a special collection featuring 3 new tracks (including "Northwest States cont.") and 3 remixes by amazing local artists Red Steers, Signer and Glass Vaults. Click here to get it
INTERNATIONAL TOURING DIY BOOK
The book I've written on touring and stuff was meant to be out last weekend and well, it is finished - I just underestimated how long editing on it would take. The total beast is like 60,000+ words, so yeah, will take a little while. I also have had a few reads of it and realised that I really should publish it. It's pretty long and not that easy to read onscreen, plus I think it's pretty good. I will still totally offer an option of people being able to download it for free, but I am also looking into publishing a short run of books as it's not really written like an easily referenceable guide book, but like a novel.
Sorry, I don't yet have a date it will available. Very sorry to those who have emailed me expressing how keen they are to read it... when you hear about the project I'm announcing next month you'll understand where much of my non-camp organising time has been spent. Hopefully the next newsletter should have a definitive release date that I can't weasel out of.
BTW. I told people if it wasn't out by Nov 25th they could beat me to a pulp. Feel free, I deserve it.
This has been an A Low Hum Newsletter.