Dub dot dash

Hope for a generation...
The Cuba St Carnival happened in Wellington over the weekend - I was lucky enough to be invited down to play, with Dub Asylum, and Bassteppa Sound System. Despite the constant rain all day saturday, heaps of Wellingtonians braved the weather to stroll up and down Cuba St checking out the music on the numerous stages and the stalls selling food, clothes and little coloured balls with smiley faces painted on them - only $2 a pop. I had a recurring conversation with several Auckland folk I ran into during the day, saying that if this event was in Auckland, everyone would stay home cos it was raining, whereas Wellingtonians don't care, its just a little rain. Good on em!
We did our Dub Asylum set mid afternoon on saturday, about 30 folks dancing in the rain, good on them too. Even had a few cops walk past, and my MC Word Perfect managed to get them to do a little boogie - he told the crowd "Do you know why the police can dance? Cos they're walking the beat!" Great pun.

We did a Bassteppa set at Bodega in the evening, then Fat Freddys Drop rounded out my saturday night, playing to a hometown crowd down at a jam-packed club on Courtney Place. Its been several years since I've seen them, and they have honed down their approach into something truly amazing. While they used to cruise on jamming til the cows come home, now they seem to effortlessly groove thru their tunes, thanks to some tightening up of their arrangements. Sure, they still cut loose and extend a tune as they see fit, but they are just so soulful; its unbelievably good. They are very talented cats, who understand the importance of underplaying, rather than showing off on their instruments.

While many folk trumpeted endlessly about 2003 being the best year for NZ music ever, that's really only true if you were making pop, garage rock or hiphop. If you fell outside those strict genres, forget it. Fat Freddys don't fit easily into any tidy genre description, but I hope the public appetite for local sounds will embrace them when their album drops later this year. If Fat Freddys hit the top of the local album charts, then perhaps there's some hope for this generation.

Sunday at the Carnival was fine weather, lots of good music, and a late breakfast sitting outside at Fidels watching the crowd stroll by - Fidels vegetarian feast is so good, I would consider moving to Wellington just for that. Their hash browns are the bomb.

Bob Mould is a DJ
He used to be an alt rock god, but now he's at the wheels of steel. His dj sets sound like a lot of fun - there's a playlist here. And he's got a blog. How thoroughly modern. Background article here.
Mould djs weekly at a clubnight called Blowoff alongside Richard Morel - they met when Mould and his boyfriend moved to Washington DC a few years ago.