Subset BC - Album Review: Subset BC
16 Dec 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Here’s an interesting little thing from Gisborne. A funky little band with three bass players.
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A Crude Mechanical - Album Review: Discourse
08 Dec 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Shane Warbrooke doesn’t believe in lyrics, because of the risk of lyrics being hi-jacked and meanings bent to suit ideologies which he doesn’t like. Well, such ideologies which most of us don’t like, truth be known, but then again, Beethoven didn’t write lyrics, so the freedom of speech counter argument only goes so far.
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Velvet Arrow - MNZ Interview: It's a Wrap with Roger S02 / E09 - Velvet Arrow
19 Nov 2023 // interview by roger.bowie
Watch Roger Bowie rapping with Hannah Jane from Velvet Arrow about their sensational debut album Songs of Solitude, released on Saturday November 18th, 2023.
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Gig Review: Atomic: Women of Rock @ The Civic, Auckland - 11/11/2023
13 Nov 2023 // review by roger.bowie
What a feast of nostalgia we’ve had from Liberty Stage (Simone Williams) these past few years, as New Zealand’s finest have Come Together to cover the classic albums which made the soundtracks of our youth. In addition to this, there have also been special tributes like Tami Neilson’s rock ‘n roll party with Dinah Lee, just last month.
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Killergrams - EP Review: Lonely Nights In A Little Town
27 Oct 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Someone walked out, and Tom Maxwell has lost his mind, in a gentle, acoustic way. Then his mind explodes in a cacophony of chaos, which might just be what it feels like, losing something that important.
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D.C. Maxwell - Album Review: Lone Rider
24 Oct 2023 // review by roger.bowie
I’ve Been Wrong, but every once in a while, someone comes along and knocks you out. Random violence is not what this is about, but D.
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MNZ Interview: It's a Wrap with Roger S02 / E07 - Faith Wilde
19 Oct 2023 // interview by roger.bowie
Check out Roger Bowie rapping with Faith Wilde, from Auckland band Goodnight Faith, and currently based in America where she is living the dream in a trailer park in Branson Missouri working by day and recording into her portable studio by night. Apart from jumping on stage in Des Moines and singing Dial Drunk better than Noah Kahan himself (and he said that).
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The Mentalist Collective - Album Review: Signal Hill
13 Oct 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Here’s a great new band from Dunedin, a collective of mentalists who write and perform and presumably subscribe to mentalism, which is a kind of magic but with psychology at its core. They might play tricks on you, but it’s for a good cause.
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Summer Thieves - Album Review: Cigarettes in Space
29 Sep 2023 // review by roger.bowie
I rediscovered Summer Thieves during the recent Going Global showcases down in the cellars on K Road, and was mightily re-impressed, although slightly irked to discover that I missed their second album during the fog of lockdown. But not to worry, they are back with their third album Cigarettes in Space which opens with a deeply funk bass riff propping up a Spaceship with echoes of Major Tom translated into modern day thievery.
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Going Global Review: Day 1 Showcase
02 Sep 2023 // review by roger.bowie
The Going Global Music Summit brings together a host of international music industry folk and they talk about the industry. It’s organized by IMNZ (Independent Music NZ) and the NZ Music Commission.
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Don McGlashan - Gig Review: Don McGlashan @ Artworks Theatre, Waiheke Island - 26/08/2023
28 Aug 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Don McGlashan warmed up the Waiheke Artworks centre on Saturday night with a magical journey through the past 40 years of the art of The Don. The newly appointed (but not yet anointed) Hall of Famer was in modestly ebullient form as he thanked his Lucky Stars in his opening song.
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Sonia & Nigel - Album Review: Sweet Paname
04 Aug 2023 // review by roger.bowie
In the middle of last month, just in time for Bastille Day, Sonia Wilson released the digital version of her paean to Paris, Sweet Paname. Sonia is Franco-American, born and educated in Paris, and now resides in Auckland after a peripatetic period of travel.
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You, Me, Everybody - Gig Review: You Me Everybody @ Tuning Fork, Auckland - 23/07/2023
25 Jul 2023 // review by roger.bowie
A nice cosy seating arrangement greeted us on Sunday night to contrast the winter gloom as the Tuning Fork opened its doors nice and early for a night of music from old friends. You, Me, Everybody are on tour to celebrate the fame and attention they have been receiving since having a song chosen for the Netflix series Sweet Tooth, and so now we are paying attention to them and they to us!!!
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Jazmine Mary - Gig Review: Jazmine Mary @ Hollywood Avondale, Auckland - 08/07/2023
10 Jul 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Jazmine Mary enchanted the fully seated Hollywood theatre in Avondale on Saturday night celebrating their new album Dog. But first up was an elegantly attired Julia Deans bringing us some new songs from her next album due out later this year.
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The Mitchell Twins - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger S02 / E05 - The Mitchell Twins
16 Jun 2023 // interview by roger.bowie
Roger raps firstly with Nicola Mitchell, the left half of The Mitchell Twins, whose debut EP is out today, and then segues into a clip taken in Gore a couple of weeks ago, with Jenny Mitchell and her father Ron, talking about the songs they wrote for the MLT Songwriters’ Award, one of which made the finals, and ultimately became runner-up.
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Jazmine Mary - Album Review: Dog
01 Jun 2023 // review by roger.bowie
Jazmine Mary’s sophomore offering is out today; Friday June 3rd, and it’s called Dog. Why it’s called Dog they are not saying, but there are references to “Houndog” and “Flower Power” in the outro to Seagull, so maybe that explains it or maybe it doesn’t.
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You, Me, Everybody - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger S02 / E03 - You, Me, Everybody
24 May 2023 // interview by roger.bowie
Roger Bowie catches up with Laurence, Nat and Rob from You, Me, Everybody as they get ready to tour in July, and are feeling the love from the massive response to their song Stranger being on the soundtrack for series 2 of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth. Also a side-track into the world of AI and it’s impact on song writing: (spoiler alert, it will not be good).
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No Broadcast - Album Review: The Common Thread
11 May 2023 // review by roger.bowie
No Broadcast started out in the noughties and started releasing their music in 2011, when commonly regarded as a three piece. Two EPs and three albums later the band has evolved into a musical collective which is predominantly the vehicle for musician and vocalist Josh Braden’s eclectic soundscape experimentation.
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Zephyr Love - Album Review: Homage
21 Apr 2023 // review by roger.bowie
If you like your rock retro, California retro with more than a hint of Boston, you’ll like the debut album from Chris McCollum under the moniker Zephyr Love, which is out now and will be featured live at the Anthology Lounge this Saturday night. The album is called Homage and it certainly is.
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The Veils - Gig Review: The Veils @ The Powerstation, Auckland - 1/04/2023
02 Apr 2023 // review by roger.bowie
The much-anticipated album release tour by The Veils finished in Auckland last night at the Powerstation. And Out of the Void Came Love is an epic offering of songs which see Finn Andrews oscillate between his solo self and his bandleader self as he completes the transition in his life from incessant touring and writing and fronting his English and London based band to a quieter life back home in New Zealand with new found family bliss and the chance to breathe and live, despite the frustrations of the last few Covid years.
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Matt Joe Gow - Album Review: Between Tonight and Tomorrow
09 Mar 2023 // review by roger.bowie
There’s a simple drumbeat and then this quintessential Americana voice bursts forth and it’s a shipwreck, which is no place to start, but this ship’s been sunk for years and years and Matt Joe Gow opens his fourth album with a Shipwreck and it’s a great place to start, with a rich, full sound and Katya Harrop on backing vocals, and we’re away… Matt Joe Gow is a man who knows who he is, is comfortable in his skin and oozes authenticity into his entire persona and so it’s no surprise that this persona translates into song. He’s from Dunedin but has plied his trade in Victoria for umpteen years and happily for us is increasing his focus on his home country fans, with a short tour just completed and more to come…..
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The Veils - Album Review: ...And Out Of The Void Came Love
02 Mar 2023 // review by roger.bowie
The Veils have a new album out today, their first for seven years, and it’s called ….And Out of the Void Came Love.
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Fraser Ross - Gig Review: Fraser Ross w/ Hannah Everingham @ Wine Cellar, Auckland - 4/02/2023
06 Feb 2023 // review by roger.bowie
It’s a balmy Auckland evening with no rain, yes, no rain, yes, no rain, yes, I really mean no rain and we’re at the Wine Cellar to see Christchurch/Lyttelton based musicians Fraser Ross, who is headlining, and Hannah Everingham, who is opening, except she’s not, because Babe Martin pops up ahead of her. Very cool singer songwriter who has another life as Zoe Larson Cumming who you will hear on 95bfm.
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Graham McGregor - Album Review: The Real Karanghape Road
12 Dec 2022 // review by roger.bowie
At last, I get to write about someone who is older than me. And more notorious!
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Anthea de Milo - Album Review: The Vicar's Daughter
27 Nov 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Out of a cavernous ballroom in Kurow comes the soulful mourning of Anthea de Milo with an old classic, just written, Just in Case. Anthea de Milo?
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Come Together: The Beatles @ Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Auckland - 12/11/2022
13 Nov 2022 // review by roger.bowie
The Beatles wrote much of their ninth album, their first double, on a Transcendental Meditation course in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in early 1968. They called it simply “The Beatles”, but, in contrast to the previous album cover for Sergeant Pepper, extreme in colour and pageantry, this album was just…….
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Adam Hattaway & The Haunters - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 018: Adam Hattaway and Elmore Jones
04 Nov 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
Roger Bowie raps with Adam Hattaway and Elmore Jones from the Haunters about their new album, Bug Eyes, out today, and why it’s their best yet. Rebel Rebel Bowie crashes the interview and Elmore thinks Adam is a good boss.
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Gig Review: Come Together - Tom Petty @ Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Auckland - 30/10/2022
31 Oct 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Tom Petty hit us like a bullet train in 1976. It was London, and prog rock was being challenged by punk.
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Aldous Harding - Gig Review: Aldous Harding @ Auckland Town Hall, Auckland - 26/10/2022
28 Oct 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Ah, Aldous, it’s been three years since you filled the PowerStation twice and etched your name and face in our annals. Three long years, only relieved by a cameo at the Flying Nun birthday party last year.
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Miller Yule - Album Review: Let It Burn
29 Sep 2022 // review by roger.bowie
You can tell by the name, can’t you, you can just tell. I mean, Dwight Yoakam couldn’t be anything but a country singer, could he?
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Looking For Alaska - Gig Review: Looking for Alaska w/ Chris Dent @ Wine Cellar, Auckland - 22/09/2022
24 Sep 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Here we are on a cool, wet spring night, but as always, it’s warm inside the Wine Cellar. In The Shallows were originally on this bill but have been plagued by some ill health and we can guess what that might be, so instead Looking for Alaska step up and, no surprise, invite their old mate Chris Dent (Albi) along to open the show.
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Marlon Williams - Album Review: My Boy
06 Sep 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Shit, Marlon’s gone poppy. Not just My Boy.
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Come Together: David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust @ Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland - 20/08/2022
21 Aug 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Here we are, back in 1972, the year when if you hadn’t heard of David Bowie before, then wham!... an indelible stamp of wonder and amazement and disbelief is delivered to your consciousness for the next 50 years if not forever.
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Jodi Vaughan - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 015: Jodi Vaughan
05 Aug 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
Check out Roger's rap with legendary country singer Jodi Vaughan, who is still alive and well and living in Hamilton. They talk about her new album, which is also reviewed on Muzic.
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Matt Joe Gow - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 014: Matt Joe Gow
02 Aug 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
Music runs in the blood of Matt Joe Gow , after being surrounded by music and picking up a guitar from a young age.
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Jenny Mitchell - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap With Roger 013: Jenny Mitchell
11 Jul 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
In the newest edition of 'It's A Wrap with Roger', Roger speaks with the stunning Jenny Mitchell about the release of her third album Tug of War, touring and a whole lot more. Watch the interview to find out what was said.
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Mel Parsons - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger: Mel Parsons
30 Jun 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
I caught up with Mel Parsons at home in Lyttelton, the one place on earth where everyone who has ever recorded a song, comes from, or so it seems. Almost a cliché, Mel reckons, but although it is, in its essence, a village, Lyttelton is also a hideaway, and Mel more often sees her fellow artists at the airport, off doing their thing.
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Arun O'Connor - Album Review: Songs From The Reading Room
17 Jun 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Arun O’Connor is as good as gold when I speak to him in dark and gloomy Invercargill about his new album, his debut album, Songs From The Reading Room, which came out sneakily in late April.  You can see my interview with Arun in my interview series, ‘It’s a Wrap with Roger” here, but the dark and gloomy winter afternoon seems appropriate when you play the first song on the album, When the Darkness Comes Around.
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Gig Review: Tuning Fork Birthday @ Tuning Fork, Auckland - 01/06/2022
03 Jun 2022 // review by roger.bowie
It’s the Tuning Fork’s birthday although it’s unaware. Inertness.
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Al Park - Album Review: Pony
26 May 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Last year it was a Rooster. This year it’s a Pony.
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Samuel Philip Cooper - Single Review: Forever Loved
12 May 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Somewhere, over the rainbow, Samuel Philip Cooper’s Nana is still sitting in her favourite chair, a grey-haired old lady with a hint of a smile enjoying the late afternoon sun dappling into her garden. In reality Samuel’s Nana passed away during lockdown and he never got to say goodbye.
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Tablefox - Gig Review: Tablefox @ Anthology Lounge, Auckland - 06/05/2022
08 May 2022 // review by roger.bowie
It’s New Zealand Music Month and here we all are at Anthology Lounge for the much awaited and much postponed Tablefox new album launch for Battles. It’s been a right old battle getting the new album out and played live, and this gig was originally scheduled for last August.
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Tess Liautaud - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 009: Tess Liautaud
03 May 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
In this episode Roger catches up with NZ singer-songwriter Tess Liautaud.
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Tony Lee - Album Review: Man on Mars
11 Apr 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Tony Lee is a Man on Mars. With a “here we go” Tony Lee’s band launch into a hootenanny rocking billy of an opening song which reminds me of the kind of frantic rhythm you might see and hear at Roberts Western World of a night, any night, on Broadway in Nashville.
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Jamie McDell - Album Review: Jamie McDell
04 Mar 2022 // review by roger.bowie
What a year it has been for Kiwis in Nashville. Just last month we had Cy Winstanley from Tattletale Saints pass through (on holiday), South for Winter play a few cameo gigs supporting the release of their great little record Luxumbra, and then Jackie Bristow releases her 5th album, recorded in Nashville, while she stayed locked down here in New Zealand.
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Don McGlashan - Album Review: Bright November Morning
24 Feb 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Don McGlashan is gliding into iconic, almost patriarchal status in New Zealand’s musical heritage. His narrative is ours, his perspective the everyday, the mundane, the tragic and the joyful; snapshots of Kiwi normal, and occasionally not so.
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Paul McLaney - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 007: Paul McLaney
16 Feb 2022 // interview by roger.bowie
Muzic.net.
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Cy Winstanley - Gig Review: Cy Winstanley @ Freida Margolis, Auckland - 26/01/2022
27 Jan 2022 // review by roger.bowie
Zone red, and everything is being cancelled except the smallest of gigs, and best of all, an impromptu one at that, as Nashville based Cy Winstanley ventures out solo at the suggestion of old covers band mate Dave Khan. Which means of course that he’s not actually solo, just not Tattletale.
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Mel Parsons - Gig Review: Mel Parsons @ The Tuning Fork, Auckland - 16/12/2021
17 Dec 2021 // review by roger.bowie
You could hear a pin drop at the Tuning Fork tonight. Not the usual hum and bustle and sometimes annoying back of hall chatter.
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Mac Summer - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 005: Mac Summer
08 Nov 2021 // interview by roger.bowie
In this episode of 'It's A Wrap with Roger', Roger speaks with NZ music legend Malcolm Welsford about his newest music endeavour, Mac Summer.
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Harry Hodgman - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 004: Harry Hodgman
22 Oct 2021 // interview by roger.bowie
In this episode of 'It's A Wrap with Roger', Roger speaks with Harry Hodgman , a unique contributor to the NZ music scene with his original songs and instrumentals. Harry has published two original songbooks for piano & voice, and is currently writing a third.
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Darryn Harkness - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 003: Darryn Harkness
13 Oct 2021 // interview by roger.bowie
Welcome to another episode of Roger Bowie's 'It's a Wrap with Roger' interview series. Today Roger speaks to songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Darryn Harkness.
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The Jesse Wilde Band - Album Review: Headin' South
12 Oct 2021 // review by roger.bowie
With a name like Jesse Wilde you’d be sure he must be an outlaw. Especially when he looks a lot like Duane Allman in his cover photo.
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Kendall Elise - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 002: Kendall Elise
27 Aug 2021 // interview by roger.bowie
In the second episode of 'It's A Wrap with Roger', Roger speaks to Kendall Elise about her new album Let The Night In, which is available from today.
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Kerryn Fields - MNZ Interview: It's A Wrap with Roger 001: Kerryn Fields
19 Aug 2021 // interview by roger.bowie
Muzic.net.
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Graeme James - Gig Review: Graeme James @ The Tuning Fork, Auckland - 13/08/2021
15 Aug 2021 // review by roger.bowie
On a cool spring evening (spring always started in August where I grew up, down south) the Tuning Fork is nicely staged with a clutch of instruments neatly arranged in anticipation. The modest crowd bunches up to form an intimate cluster and a familiar face takes the stage in the form of Chris/Albi without the Wolves, or at least half of them because the willowy, billowy puppet-like figure of Pascal Roggen also joins him on half a dozen instruments more commonly known as the violin.
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Andrew Fagan - Gig Review: Andrew Fagan and the Person @ Pigeon Racing Club, St Heliers Bay - 31/07/2021
01 Aug 2021 // review by roger.bowie
Down on the St Heliers strip, just a stone’s throw away from the Village Hall captured in the late 70's by the punk rockers, there sits a little hole-in-the-wall bar which is also the HQ for the St Heliers Bay Pigeon Racing Club. Pigeon Racing is an ancient sport which carries on to this day.
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Gig Review: Come Together: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Civic Theatre, Auckland - 17/07/2021
18 Jul 2021 // review by roger.bowie
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was never my favourite Elton John record, even though it turns out to be everyone else’s. At 76 minutes, it was long for its day, a ramshackle, mixed metaphor affair which reflected the prolific nature of the John/Taupin creative partnership in the early 70s, seven albums in five years, too many songs and too much excitement to attempt to cull and reject.
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