Online music hub dunedinmusic.com is celebrating 10 years of supporting Dunedin music with an all-day birthday blowout in the University Union's main common room.
The website is run in part by Re:Fuel bar and The Chills manager Scott Muir, who says that a decade on he feels good about the positive contribution the website has made to the local music scene.
''I feel remarkably good actually. It's been, and continues to be, a crazy gratifying ride. We have come a long way!''
The site which has served as a platform for sharing, discussing, and reviewing Dunedin music, as well as providing online distribution services, has gradually evolved from a social forum to a news-orientated site and an aggregation service for Dunedin music happenings.
''We were around before Myspace, let alone Facebook and Twitter and all the other social media that's on offer today,'' Muir says.
''It's very easy in both Dunedin and New Zealand to feel a bit resigned to our lot, and even with our interconnected world to feel somewhat isolated.
"However, in my experience, here in Dunedin we occupy a pretty special place in the international contemporary music world, and it never ceases to surprise me the ongoing interest in our activities. It's about attempting to connect both locally and internationally.
''The online world is becoming more and more challenging for all levels of artists and it's my sincere wish that we continue to educate, advocate, advise and celebrate the diverse range of talent we have here.''
Rather than throw an integrated all-ages event, Muir is encouraging fans to get their share of youthful musical exuberance at the Amped Music Project Ampathon party at Refuel from 12.30pm.
Run by the Dunedin Fringe Arts, the Amped Project is a Dunedin-based youth mentoring project that organises a series of all-age gigs and workshops covering a diverse range of industry subjects, including DIY recording techniques, royalties and licensing, and, of course, songwriting.
Today is the culmination of the programme and will feature performances from the roster of 2015 bands, as well as a guest appearance from post-apocalyptic doom rockers Space Bats, Attack! whose guitarist Richard Ley-Hamilton served as a project facilitator.
''We know these kids have the chops,'' Muir says.
''Amped is giving them a few skills early on and then we get out of the way and let them get on with it. It really is visible in the energy around the kids involved. It makes an old guy flush with pride.
"There is hope for the world as long as we continue to value the arts for how it makes us all better people.''
BE THERE
• dunedinmusic.com's 10th birthday bash, tonight at the main common room, University Union, featuring Graeme Downes, Ragged, For The Quail, Shakes and the Swell Guys, Haszari, Wall2Wall, The Bergs, Death and the Maiden, Miss, The Mentalist Collective, Arcee, Tahu and the Takahes, OWLS, Machina Rex, and Space Bats, Attack!
Free entry from 7pm.
• Ampathon 2015, today at Re:Fuel, featuring all of the Amped Music Project's 2015 bands plus special guests Space Bats, Attack!
All ages, free entry from 12.30-4.30pm.
