Last week international acts Beach House, Rhye and Four Tet played at the Auckland Arts Festival. Lauren Spring went to all three shows. I arrived in Auckland from Wellington, thoroughly wiped out. My very humid arrival in Auckland was heralded by a very painful tattoo on my ribs (I 100% screamed like a little bitch), … Read more
For three days every March, New Plymouth’s Brooklands Park is transformed into a village of colour, energy and inclusion. Michelle Cruickshanks celebrates the WOMAD spirit. WOMAD is a bubble. It’s an eclectic retreat from day-to-day life, the chance to step outside your normal experiences and tastes, to be transported and transformed – if only for … Read more
Changing Rooms was a 90s DIY show like no other. After this year’s Australian Changing Rooms reboot crashed due to low ratings, Tara Ward relives the glory days of the UK original. This year’s Australian reboot of Changing Rooms came and went from our screens quicker than you could turn a piece of MDF into a hanging shelf … Read more
CubaDupa festival hosts nearly 200 artists across two days in the heart of Wellington to mark the end of summer. Trip glitch, Indian jazz fusion, 80s glam, alt dream-pop, contemporary jazz Afrofuturism, German electronic jazz, postpunk dream pop, and psychedelic kraut space rock. These are just a few of the nearly 100 different genres of … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the sixth week on Married at First Sight Australia, with special thanks to Nando’s. If we told you this wasn’t a rude pod, we’d be lying. What more can you expect from such a rude week on MAFS AU, complete with naked calendar shoots, brazen buttcracks and passionate party pashing? … Read more
There’s no doubt that the Spice Girls are one of the biggest bands of all time. But how have they fared in the 20 odd years since? Sam Brooks ruthlessly ranks their solo careers. The footsteps and cackle at the start of ‘Wannabe’ are as era-defining as pop music gets. Hell, that entire song is … Read more
Before The Joe Rogan Experience, before even Fear Factor, Joe Rogan was an actor on a much-loved show called NewsRadio. Laura Vincent reminisces over the hunk before the era of podcasting. I’m an expert on Joe Rogan. You know the guy, right? If not from yelling enthusiastically at UFC cards you’ve surely heard of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, … Read more
Alex Casey rips open the velcro on Married at First Sight Australia‘s biggest scandal yet. There’s a lot to be said about the latest sordid season of Married at First Sight Australia. For a start, there’s the slimy cheating scandals, the violent outbursts of rage and the relentlessly sexist gaslighting. And then there’s the very … Read more
Last night, the first part of the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland aired on TVNZ. Katie Meadows looks at what it means for the popstar’s legacy. This piece involves descriptions of child abuse, sexual assault and grooming. Since Leaving Neverland first aired, one of the first questions to be asked in a world where Michael Jackson is an abuser … Read more
Alex Casey can’t stop watching Jojo Siwa’s vlogs on Youtube. With the documentary Jojo Siwa: My World arriving to Lightbox this month, here’s your much-needed introduction to a young internet sensation. Most nights I find myself falling down a Jojo Siwa rabbit hole, lying on my side with 400 chins as I let vlog after … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the fifth week on Married at First Sight Australia, with special thanks to Nando’s. It’s another chaotic week on the pod, complete with phone calls to Nasser from the last season of MAFS, Duncan getting cancelled live on air and many, many Haribo lollies. Why is Jessika trying to sleep … Read more
In honour of International Women’s Day, Tara Ward rounds up the best BFFs you can hang out with through the screen. Not only are women taking over an entire day in the calendar, they’re taking over the bloody television too. Better living everyone, because TV keeps giving us brilliant and amazing women inspire us, make … Read more
Anika Moa Unleashed finished up its second season with its most coveted and triumphant get yet: a 20 year reunion of TrueBliss. Okay, so it’s not all of TrueBliss. But one less Carly Binding and one plus Anika Moa is still a pretty damn good effort at a reunion. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. I’m … Read more
Six seasons in, Below Deck remains the wildest drama on the high seas. Now’s the perfect time to catch up on this hugely entertaining boat-based reality series, argues Dominic Corry. Vanderpump Rules and the various Real Housewives shows may dominate the Bravo brand, but a world away from those land-based shenanigans, there’s another Bravo reality … Read more
The Newtown Festival, one of the capital’s biggest festivals, celebrated its 22nd birthday over the weekend. Ben Lynch was there. Since its inception back in 1997 as a celebration of council tree planting and street improvements in the centre of Wellington’s most bohemian suburb, Newtown Festival has evolved to signify a great many things. The … Read more
The return of television’s most authentic mum, a Dance Moms spinoff, and some fantastic mister beasts – all these and more are New to Lightbox this month. Better Things (weekly from March 1) “Better Things is, indeed, a love letter to families. Through vignettes of Sam’s everyday life, the show captures the joys and frustrations of single-handedly raising three … Read more
The Enemy Within, which drops weekly on Lightbox from today, combines the funnest parts of a spy thriller with the complexity of a character study, thanks to a compelling lead performance. Sam Brooks reviews. The title ‘The Enemy Within’ is one of those multi-entendre’d ones that you can tell someone was very satisfied to come up with. … Read more
Milk and Honey is a nationwide music festival happening on International Women’s Day this Friday. Anny Ma talked to its organisers, Lani Purkis and Teresa Patterson, about why it’s so necessary. Milk and Honey is a music festival touring four cities and six venues, but all of the shows will happen simultaneously on one night: … Read more
The actor Luke Perry, whose performance as Dylan McKay in the TV show Beverly Hills 90210 was an early ’90s cultural phenomenon, has died aged 52. Emily Writes pays tribute. Luke Perry, aka Dylan McKay, was my first love. There was no separating Luke from Dylan. He was Dylan. Wearing a white shirt and leather … Read more
Sam Brooks steps back in time to 2009, the year of Now! That’s What I Call Music 31. What did his younger self think of those songs – and do they still hold up today? The year was 2009 and it was full of, as your worst friend would say, ‘absolute chunes’. No album, no compilation, … Read more
Love Island has smashed streaming records all over the world and Three’s purchase of the global rights, along with a pricey local franchise, will complete a radical transformation of the channel. This week The Spinoff learned that Mediaworks, parent company of Three, plans on launching a New Zealand version of ITV’s megahit Love Island. The … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the fourth week on Married at First Sight Australia, with special thanks to Nando’s. Your favourite Married at First Sight Australia experts are back to look at a week on MAFS that may or may not have gone too far. Innes and Sam have gone full steam ahead in the sauna (allegedly), … Read more
Heartbreak Island is back for another year, bringing more raunch and drama than ever before. Watch as Alex Casey dives in. What is Heartbreak Island? Is it a moral toilet? Is it an ambitious mutant? Is it a chance to get hotties to talk about climate change? Is it all just a bit of a … Read more
Our sword-queen returns, a reliable popstar deepens her foundations and Aldous Harding mesmerizes us with the power of dance. These are the songs of the month – five international, three local – as picked by The Spinoff’s culture editor Sam Brooks. International Handmade Heaven by Marina Marina, now sans the Diamonds, has been one of … Read more
There’s a lot to love about the acclaimed comedy-drama Better Things, which returns to Lightbox for a third season this Friday. Tara Ward takes at look what the show gets right about parenting. Better Things heroine Sam Fox reckons that if she was to ever name her home, it’d be called ‘Tiny Assholes With Vaginas’. … Read more
Goosebumps had nothing on this one. Tom Augustine looks back at the Kiwi kid’s horror series that scarred a generation: Freaky. When I was a kid, there wasn’t much I was banned from watching – my mum, bless her, was of the ‘better you do it in the house’ variety – but one such ban came after … Read more
Poetik is a fresh talent in the Auckland hip hop scene, but he takes a very retro approach to his music, creating G-funk bangers and selling CDs direct to fans as if the internet hadn’t been invented. Gareth Shute caught up with him to talk about his old-is-new approach and why it’s all part of … Read more
Through rain and shine, Splore 2019 shone bright for three days. Photos by Kelsy Scott, Federico Pagola, Connor Crawford, Glenn McLelland and Dane Scott. Read Simon Day’s journey into the 20 year history of the Splore festival here Read Simon Day’s journey into the 20 year history of the Splore festival here
