Today marks Record Store Day, the ninth national and international celebration of independent music retail outlets, meant to bring together fans, store owners, labels and artists alike.
Despite its growing position as just another corporate/industry/major label chance to gouge your money with processing-plant clogging exorbitant reissues of needlessly repackaged "classics'' and live albums from a host of completely has-been male rock dinosaurs, there are a few benefits.
One of those can be found at Relics today from 3pm, with an in-store performance by Emily Edrosa and Dunedin's Kane Strang.
Emily Edrosa is the solo project of Emily Littler, one third of Auckland's Street Chant, whose new album, Hauora, I raved about last week.
The punk/folk solo venture has its roots in an arduous US tour, on which the only time Littler had to herself was when she was on the toilet, and even then her band mates were only a thin wall away.
Swapping the biting electric guitar of Street Chant for an acoustic, the slower more meticulous style brings a more introspective, dark and brooding vibe to the fore, a weirder and more experimental vehicle for Beck-ish or Kurt Vile-like experiments in anti-folk punk and outsider music.
It's also a great showcase for Edrosa's lyrical prowess, her sardonic solipsism and humour also a highlight. Also performing is Strang, Dunedin's resident garage, folk, psych prodigy.
Strang has once again been dabbling in some solo shows on the back of new album Blue Cheese and his new band's deserved local and international success. See him before he tours the US later this year, and maybe never comes back.
Not to be missed this one!
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
Back for its 28th year, the Otago University Students Association Battle of the Bands has opened applications before the annual Music Month festivities.
The competition, presented by Radio One and NZ on Air, pits some of the best up-and-coming musical talent the university has to offer against one another over four heats, and a final.
The competitors will compete for recording time on the university's million-dollar recording console, ad space on Radio One, and a spot on the Re-Orientation line-up.
Entries close on April 29 and can be submitted at www.ousa.org.nz/events/ battle-of-the-bands/
STEPPING UP
With the current dearth of traditional music venues in the city, it's been great to see communal creative spaces such as the Attic stepping up and creating new safe, inclusive, welcoming homes for live music in the city.
Another great space that has hosted its share of shows over the years is None Gallery, a cultural mainstay of Dunedin's alt subcultures and independent arts.
This week, it's hosting the dark disco of Elan Vital, the electro doom tyranny of two-piece Pesk, and the devotional soundscapes, drones and musing of Hope Robertson, of Bad Sav, and Death and the Maiden, aka Birdation.
The gigs
• Emily Edrosa and Kane Strang, Relics, 86 St Andrew St. Free entry from 3pm.
• Elan Vital, Pesk, and Birdation, Friday, April 22, None Gallery, Stafford St . Entry from 8pm.
