Since then the band has developed its own brand of what it calls "liquid metal".
With this line-up, Mirikachinist won the South Island heat of the 2010 national Battle of the Bands.
After a period away, MacDonald is back in the fold and also aboard is fiery new guitarist Jono Maxwell.
Mirikachinist has been harnessing its attacking live sound for an EP at the Arthousemedia Studio, recently opened by producer Paul Sammes, in Dunedin.
The band will be supporting Brazilian metal band Eminence and New Zealand's own Darklight Corporation on the "Guns at Dawn" tour in Queenstown (September 16), Dunedin (September 15), and Invercargill.
On the web: www.mirikachinist.com.
• Comber over
One-time Dunedinite Simon Comber is back in the country following a tour of boutique venues in the United States, playing with artists including the very hip Barbara Manning, who has been known to play in Dunedin.
Comber has a couple of shows lined up in town: first, supporting Haunted Love at their September 23 album release gig at the DPAG, then at Taste Merchants, 36 Stuart St, on Sunday September 25, with Michael Steven.
• Bats take flight
New Zealand band the Bats release their eighth studio album, Free All The Monsters, through Flying Nun Records on October 17.
The first single, title track Free All The Monsters, is out now, and available at www.flyingnun.bandcamp.com.
The Bats recorded Monsters at Seacliff, a former asylum just outside Dunedin. It was produced by Dale Cotton (HDU, The Clean, Dimmer).
"It's great to be working with the Bats again ... With the band in such great form it feels very much like having an important limb successfully sewn back on," Flying Nun Record's Roger Shepherd said.
• Shake it
Hit hard by the February 22 earthquake, a group of Lyttelton musicians, united under the moniker The Harbour Union, have hunkered down together, recording an album with the intention of giving something back to the community they love.
With many of the venues that supported Lyttelton's thriving artistic community either destroyed or awaiting rebuilds (these include cherished establishments Harbour Light, Wunderbar, The Volcanic Cafe, El Santo and The Empire Hotel), the various Harbour Union members have had to find other outlets.
Hence a self-titled album comprising 13 new or re-imagined songs from a collective of musicians featuring The Eastern, Delaney Davidson, Lindon Puffin, The Unfaithful Ways, The Tiny Lies, Al Park and Runaround Sue.
To date, sales of Harbour Union have exceeded 1400 copies, reaching No 18 in the New Zealand charts in May. On the back of that interest, the Lyttelton collective has decided to embark on a national tour that includes a gig at Chicks Hotel, Port Chalmers, tonight.
• Bookends
If you are reading this on Saturday morning, the Regent Theatre 24-Hour Book Sale will be almost over, since it ends at midday.
Acts playing this morning include Jae Bedford at 7am, The Chaps at 9am, The Whirling Eddys at 10am, and Radler, closing the event, from 11am.
