its all the same highway

so in wellington it often feels like alt-country is the new jazz. people in turtle necks sitting at the paramount politely listening to gillian welch and clapping appreciatively. so it was a weird kind of refreshing to go to Hayseed Dixie last night at Indigo. they played bluegrass covers of ACDC, Black Sabbath, Led Zep, Aerosmith, and even Queen. and damn they were fun. some of the finest banjo, violin, mandolin, and bassing i've ever heard (first time i've ever seen a bassist play his bass behind his neck too). but what made the gig wonderfully surreal was the crowd. this was an old school acdc crowd, drinking jack and coke, wearing pighunting t-shirts, and making the loudest cheers i've ever heard at the indigo. its always a bit frightening when the hutt comes to cuba st, but yeeha it was rollicking.

pictures by rachel bolstad

sumer is icumen in

woohoo, i've had my first Lemon & Grapefruit Fruju for the season. as far as i'm concerned, that's the first sign of summer, it goes with the first sunburn of the season and the first jump in the sea of the season (which i haven't done yet). and now even if the weather turns crap again, it doesn't matter because in this town summer is a state of mind.

(and yes, i'm talking about the weather because i'm still waiting for my cd cover to be finished and the disc to be sent off for pressing).

plastic mainland

yay, its been confirmed. the plastic kitchen are taking on the mainland. come hear the kitchen play dunedin Dec 9th at Arc Cafe. We'll be playing with dunedin band The Dark Beaks. But wait there's more - Das Ben (yep that's me holding a guitar instead of a bass) will open for the beaks and the kitchen, so its gonna be a whole bucketful of ben. ben ben ben.