The Very Good Agency

Batucada Sound Machine – Auckland and beyond

Yeeeeeah! New Zealand’s 13ish piece super group Batucada Sound Machine are putting on a very special show for Auckland on September 4th at ‘4:20’. For this special performance they bring along the infamous King Kapisi, Cherie Mahieson, Miho Wada and DJ Bobby Brazuka. If you haven’t seen Batucada Sound Machine play before, the energy of this massive group sets them apart from most live shows these days, with almost as many people on stage as in the crowd. The incredible musicianship and talent of the individuals involved in the group, forming a Brzilian style afro beat bigband will set any night off, so with the addition of more talent to a night from BSM, it’s sure to make for an epic evening out.
Batucada Sound Machine featuring Che-Fu – Smoke

With MC Hazaduz (right hand man to Che-Fu) and King Kapisi both on the mic, Auckland will get to enjoy two of New Zealands finer MC’s, and potentially from memories of performances when I was still at high school, one of the best beatboxers Australasia has to offer in King Kapisi.

King Kapisi – Reverse Thoughts

Following this performance, BSM will be hitting the ‘Brisbane Arts Festival’, back to NZ for the ‘Nelson Arts Festival’, and then back to Australia for another run of concerts and festivals in November. Keep an eye on their myspace for additions to the tour run as they confirm them, and be sure to check out the performance in your hood if you get a chance.

And the three amigos in the horn section in their Adidas track suits look cool man…

You can check out more from Batucada Sound Machine at:

www.myspace.com/batucadasoundmachine

…bs

Tags: Funk, gigs, hip hop, New Zealand Artists, Reggae

Laneous and The Family Yah – ‘St. Ill Regal’ Album Launch Tour – Free Tickets Anyone?

TICKET GIVEAWAY – Hey peeps, QLD hip hop crew Laneous and The Family Yah are touring around Australia at the moment in support of their upcoming album release for ‘St Ill Regal’. Sydney got their turn last weekend, and from all accounts the tour kicked off with some mad energy from these crazy kids. Next up Laneous and The Family Yah will be hitting Victorian and Queensland fans with a few shows around Melbourne, culminating in their album launch party in Brisbane.

Laneous and The Family Yah – Bubblegum

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Laneous explains ” ‘St. Ill Regal’ was recorded with Brissie Buzz Man Peet G @ Psi Fi Studios throughout 2008, the 17 track slammer features a whole flock of extended Family Yah members including MC’s, an 8 piece string section, Nepalese Table Master and others”.  The album tour looks to boast some talented guests also including LOTEK (UK), Very Good‘s own Pataphysics, and New Zealand’s funkiest Olmecha Supreme in QLD with his Soundsystem brothers along for the ride.

Olmecha Supreme – Snowblood

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So Laneous has been cool enough to hook up a double pass to the ‘Bar Open’ show in Melbourne with Pataphysics, and the Hi Fi show in Brisbane with Olmecha Supreme for some Very Good readers!  Thank you to Laneous, and to his wicked massive family.

To enter the draw, email your name to vg@verygood.com.au with the name of the gig you want to go to in the subject line and we’ll notify the winners by email on Thursday.

You can check out more from Laneous and The Family Sly, and get full details of the performances at:

www.myspace.com/lachlaneous

…bs

Tags: Australian Artists, breakbeats, Competitions, Funk, gigs, hip hop

Who wants to see Fisherking in Melbourne?

Peoples… Following their recent interview

Fisherking have been kind enough to put up a double pass to their Melbourne gig for two of our peoples who are interested in heading along. They play at the ‘Northcote Social Club’ on Thursday August 13th for this event, and you can check out the rest of the remaining tour here

All you need to do is contact us with the subject line reading : heck yes i’ll go!

Cool

…bs

Tags: Australian Artists, Competitions, gigs, Roots

Beans

So today’s a little random for miss P as I thought I’d branch out a little, and try dipping my feet into the deep end of the Hip-Hop pool.

Thanks to my dry cleaners, the dipping has been a lot less painful than I thought, as I picked up a copy of the Melbourne International Arts Festival leaflet.

With a couple of quick flicks I found my man…
Mr Ballbeam, aka Beans.

“Hip-hop rebel.  Wordsmith extraordinaire.  Sonic architect.  Fashion renegade. Published poet.  Culture Star.”

With an introduction like that, this article has written itself. Beans was raised in White Plains, New York achieving his widest acclaim as instigator of the legendary NYC progressive rap crew, Anti Pop Consortium.  With one of the most unique and remarkable live performances around, Beans brings us Melbournesians a taste of the glory days of 80’s hip-hop.

Beans – Papercut

Having shared stages and toured with everyone from Radiohead to DJ Krush, Kool Keith to Aesop Rock & DJ Shadow, Beans drops into ‘The Forum’ on Flinders Street on the 23rd of October 2009 to redefine the word “fresh”, and bring to hip-hop an ear for uncompromising experimentalism and intellectual wordplay.

Be sure to check out more of Beans at:

www.myspace.com/mrballbeamakabeans

… miss P

Tags: gigs, hip hop

Fisherking Interview

Fisherking, are who we caught up with this week from Sydney, to find out a little bit about where this sweet new sound is coming from, and where it’s going…

I came across your music on Triple J’s ‘Unearthed’ sight and it took me as a standout group amongst all of the newcomers to Australia’s music scene. Are you guys newcomers?

We’ve been together as FisherKing since about March 2008 so I’m not sure if that qualifies us as new comers or not! We all feel really comfy on a stage now, but we definitely feel pretty new when it comes to being in front of a video camera. We started work on our first music vid a few weeks ago and ended up with a truckload of footage of us looking especially awkward. But these last six months since winning the Triple J ‘Unearthed’ ‘FUSE Festival’ comp have been such an amazing experience for us and things have moved along so quickly, we’re always trying to keep up with it.

So who makes up FisherKing, and how did you come to be together in Sydney?

FisherKing is Sam Stephenson (vocals and guitar), Paul Hanna (guitar and BVs) Josh Leong (Bass and BVs) and Luke Robertson (drums). We’ve all grown up in Sydney’s south and known each other for most of those years. Josh and I used to get together and play music and we would work on songs and FisherKing just grew from there. It was a pretty organic experience; Paul and Luke were quickly added to the mix to make FisherKing.

Fisherking EP Release Video

How would you describe your music to people who haven’t heard it… and where does the name FisherKing come into that description?

The name FisherKing has some meaning, it comes from the old Arthurian legend of the Fisher King or the wounded king who was the keeper of the Holy Grail. But really the name just sounds fresh and coastal in itself which kind of captures the feel of what we do. I usually tell people that our music has the rootsy-ness of Ben Harper with the rock of Coldplay, and that generally makes the most sense.

Where do you find inspiration in the Australian and New Zealand music scene at the moment? anyone or anything stand out?

I’ve always looked up to Lior as a song writer so he’s a definite stand out to me and I’ve loved Empire of the Sun and Van She too. But our good mates from Bonjah (from Melbourne) have been a huge inspiration and help to us over the last year. They’ve lent us a hand negotiating our way along our journey- and they’re also an amazing band.

Your music is very suited to summer days… What’s the plan for you guys this summer?

We’re playing at a few festivals over summer and the New Year and we’re really excited about that. But after we come home from our East Oz tour over July & August, we’ll be jumping back into the studio with Genevieve Maynard (who recorded and produced our EP) to record our first album. So come summer, we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh songs to share with everyone.

What’s it been like trying to bust onto the scene in Australia so far?

It’s been hard work so far but we’ve loved every second of it! We feel we’ve been really lucky to make it as far as we have and we think things could’ve been a lot harder for us. We’re so stoked on the support we’ve been given from all over the place, including Triple J Unearthed but especially from our fans. We’re looking forward to people hearing our new tracks because we’re all so excited about them!

It’d be great to see you guys live with the spread of styles you cover… I imagine you would take the crowd from a slow waltz to bouncing. What can we expect from your live show, and when can we expect to see it go around Australia next?

Yeah, we do have the variety in our show, we love it that way! We really try to balance out the softer ones with the higher energy stuff. Plus, we’ll taking it around Oz this month! Our East coast tour starts in Newcastle on the 17th of July. We go as far north as Brisbane and then back down to coast through Sydney & head down to Melbourne and Adelaide by the middle of August. You can see all the dates and towns we’ll be playing in on our website (fisherking.com.au). We can’t get to the west this time, but we’re definitely gonna get there really soon.

You can check out more of Fisherking at:

www.fisherking.com.au

…bs

Tags: Australian Artists, Blues, gigs, Roots, Soul