It is two decades since New York natives De La Soul released the influential album De La Soul Is Dead. It might have received mixed reviews on its release and not sold as strongly as its predecessor, 3 Feet High and Rising, but De La Soul Is Dead is now regarded as a hip-hop classic.
It might deal in sizzling soul, hip-hop grit and nightclub stomp, but Australian quartet Metals is unafraid of the occasional political lyric. Shane Gilchrist catches up with founder Christopher Coe before the band's Orientation gig.
It is 20 years since New York hip-hop group De La Soul released the influential album De La Soul Is Dead. As the acclaimed outfit prepares for a New Zealand tour that includes two southern dates, Shane Gilchrist discusses Grammys, Gorillaz and gangstas with Vincent "Mase" Mason.
DJ Rekha Malhotra, who helped introduce New York audiences to the form of Punjabi folk music known as Bhangra, will be putting a fresh spin on old sounds at this year's Orientation, writes Shane Gilchrist.
Sandra Turner has cancer. She also has a lust for life, Shane Gilchrist discovers.
The music of veteran American heavy rock band The Melvins has been called many things, from an explosion in a factory, to sludge rock, to a drum set falling down a stairwell. But one of the better...
When Bill English admitted on Wednesday morning that the next few months were going to be busy, he wasn't talking about an election, the date of which was announced by Prime Minister John Key just...
Easthampton, western Massachusetts, population 30,000, has been home to Lloyd Cole for the past 11 years. A few hours drive north of New York, a couple of hours from Boston, it is both close enough...
"Children are intelligent, different from each other and unpredictable. If we know how to listen to them, children can give back to us the pleasure of amazement, of marvel, of doubt . . . the...
Ian Grant is wary of the telephone. Sure, it's a handy device, allowing him to provide parenting advice remotely to some of the dozen radio stations on which he features every week, but such...
Ordinary yet obsessive, Gazza, the key character in the film The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell, is the type of man who can be found in most suburbs, says New Zealand director Brendan Donovan. ...
He might be talking on the telephone, but one can almost sense the grin on Matiu Walters' face as he describes the rise and rise of Six60, a band he formed in 2005 with a group of fellow University...
Tim McCartney, singer and guitarist for Knives At Noon, doesn't know why his Dunedin band got pushed up the bill for the Big Day Out, going from the "Essential" stage to the more...
Shane Gilchrist highlights recent album releases by musicians once in the headlines.
Shane Gilchrist highlights recent album releases by musicians once in the headlines.
Shane Gilchrist reviews Living Proof by Buddy Guy and Hard Knocks by Joe Cocker.
Shane Gilchrist highlights recent album releases by musicians once in the headlines.
Shane Gilchrist highlights a recent album release by musicians once in the headlines:
George Thorogood is set to bring his brand of bar-room brawl blues to New Zealand, Shane Gilchrist reports.
Award-winning Dunedin illustrator David Elliot straddles a fine line between fantasy and reality, writes Shane Gilchrist.
