Against the odds, it's been a great week for music journalism.
Tova O'Brien's chat with Chumbawamba (WTF?) is just the start of it.
She’s dressed, as usual, all in black.
She leans into her laptop camera and flicks a pen from one finger to another.
Political wrecking ball Tova O’Brien arches an eyebrow and prepares to ask a question, a situation that usually has politicians shaking in their seats or hissing into hot mics.
“Is legal action an open proposition?” she asks.
On the other end of the Zoom call is a man called Boff Whalley, the singer for the 90s British band Chumbawamba.
They’ve suddenly found themselves the centre of attention again because NZ First leader Winston Peters is using his band’s hit song ‘Tubthumping’ at political rallies.
Boff is incensed. He’s outraged. He’s also very funny. “I’m hoping he gets a life jail sentence,” Boff tells Tova. “We’ll come and visit him.”
Honestly, if you’d told me at the start of the week that this exact interview would happen, I’d have fallen off my chair.
If you’d also told me that story would lead news sites for several days, I’d have told you to stop making things up and leave, immediately.
But here we are, at the end of what’s been the best kind of week, and my favourite kind of week, one chock-full of music journalism.
I know it’s not on trend for me to be this chirpy, to feel this upbeat, to act so positively breezy.
But this week has been incredible.
Major music scoops have led news sites for several days in a row.
Local coverage of will-he-won’t-he touring DJ Fred Again has been hilariously frantic and thoroughly enjoyable.
Deep-dive investigations and long-form interviews are being published about long forgotten artists who may be important again.
I have read concert reviews. Multiple concert reviews.
And album reviews.
I have been informed and entertained.
All of this involved music journalism and I haven’t been this happy in a long time.
Remember how I spent much of last year complaining about the state of it, appearing on multiple podcasts while documenting the downfall of local entertainment coverage?
Rodney Fisher wants someone – anyone – to review his new album
Two major music festivals received zero media coverage. Why?
It was a sad, distressing, super-bleak time that seemed to foreshadow the current state of media, as an axe hovers over Newshub and a scythe slices through TVNZ.
But credit where credit is due: this week there has been more music journalism on display than I can recall in a long time.
It started with The Spinoff as Gabi Lardes released another in a string of excellent stories, this one a scoop involving the 90s British band Chumbawamba telling Winston Peters to stop using their hit song ‘Tubthumping’ at his rallies.
Great yarn!
That was followed by none other than Tova O’Brien, who interviewed Chumbawumba’s lead singer on the most recent episode of her podcast, Tova, and got him to say this: “They're so stupid that they just think, ‘Oh, that's a chorus I can use.’”
I’d just finished reading that story when Stuff journalist Amberleigh Jack decided to try and find out if Fred Again is about to tour New Zealand with a series of surprise pop-up shows.
Her story is compelling and hilarious in equal measures, a classic destined to be filed away in the ‘WTF-is-happening?’ folder. (Even I followed that one up.)
But wait, there’s more!
Summer’s final two festivals happened this past weekend, and they both received multiple reviews, with Newshub and The Spinoff covering all the local acts entertaining 20,000 people at Homegrown, and NZ Herald and RNZ covering Womad’s occasionally controversial three days.
You should definitely go and read James Griffin’s review of Halestorm’s recent Auckland show. It’s delightful…
“Lizzy Hale opens the show, walking out onstage, alone. She steps up to the mic and starts to sing, acapella. The voice that emerges is jaw-dropping. It is like Janis Joplin, but turned all the way up to 11. It also terrified me, because I was worried her vocal-cords were going to explode and then she would projectile vomit blood all over the stage.”
RNZ Nights tried to find out why kids are suddenly buying CDs and VHS tapes again.
The Spinoff tried to discover if Justin Timberlake was ripping off Goodshirt’s music video for ‘Sophie’. (It’s a maybe.)
Sniffers interviewed Laneway artist and Boiler Room fave Nia Archives.
Overseas, there’s been a bunch of great coverage too.
Vulture ($) talked to Pete Doherty, the fuck-up front man from The Libertines, and discovered he’s sober, married with children, and making music again.
Rolling Stone ($) investigated the buzz surrounding Suno AI, a new product being pitched as ChatGPT for music.
Sydney Morning Herald ($) asked if Australian music festivals can continue to survive increasingly extreme weather events, something that’s going to happen here too.
In its excellent Number Ones series, Stereogum scribe Tom Breihan examined Macklemore’s ‘Can’t Hold Us’ with the benefit of hindsight and finds that, yes, that song, and that artist, still sucks.
Vulture ($) sent a critic along to California’s hip-hop festival Rolling Loud who ran through the highs and the lows of a show that included Ye miming his entire set.
“People use Rolling Loud to break out T-shirts you wouldn’t wear anywhere else. Some slogans I saw on tees this weekend include: “I eat pussy, free trial,” “I’m really vulnerable right now if any bad bitches wanna take advantage of me,” “wannabe pornstar,” and, perhaps the most outlandish, Haunted Starbucks’ “How to cook meth” hoodie.”
The Guardian has the first interview with Shihad producer and New Zealand resident Jaz Coleman since the death of his band mate, Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.
On top of all that, my good friend Chris Philpott has joined Substack and is writing regular, excellent album reviews. (Hi, Chris, and welcome!)
He’s just reviewed Tim Minchin’s Auckland show.
People!
This is what I’m talking about!
We are so back!
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Some weekend recommendations…
Have we finally found the next Game of Thrones? Shōgun, a 17th Century samurai-pirate saga on Disney+, surely has the best shot. It’s soooo good.
On Saturday night, bleak hip-hop group called $uicideboy$ take over Spark Arena. It’s sold out, but I’m hoping to cover the show. Watch this space.
David Dallas has a new album out today called ‘Vita’ and it’s excellent, a jaded veteran casting an eye back over things. Here’s a taster.
If you’re in Wellington, Fred Again is the only show anyone will be at tonight. I know what you went through to get tickets, so enjoy the shit out of it.
Finally, I was trying to find a song that matched my good mood and Four Tet came through with ‘Loved’, a deliciously weary soundscape that, if you close your eyes, sounds like summer turning into autumn in real time. Enjoy!
Got a tip, some advice, a piece of gossip, an anecdote or something to get off your chest? Contact me at iamchrisschulz@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you…
Naw, thanks for the shout out, Chris :)
I've also been super entertained by the Chumbawumba story - I love that someone reached out to the band. And the fact that Winston was surprised a journo did that: Chumbawumba are known for that one song, but they've got these anarchic, anti-establishment punk roots - anyone who knew that would know they'd hate the idea of Winnie using any of their songs. (Not to mention: using the "I get knocked down" refrain is super on the nose. Be more creative, Winnie! Might I recommend "Everybody (Backstreets Back)" as an alternative?)