For Rent Week, rapper/poet/writer/drummer Dominic Hoey (aka Tourettes) looks back in wonder at five shitty flats from his misspent youth. I’m of an age where, if I had my shit together in the ’90s, I could now conceivably own a home. Sometimes on the bus, I drift away in a neoliberal fantasy, where, instead wasting my youth reading … Read more
Ahead of the arrival of Better Call Saul season three to Lightbox next month, José Barbosa sits down with star Bob Odenkirk to discuss the hidden details in the show, Saturday Night Live vs Trump and why Cinnabon gets the party poppin’. For a long time, Breaking Bad was the pinnacle of high quality, must-watch TV. The story of … Read more
As part of Equalise My Vocals, a new Spinoff project focusing on equality in the music community, Coco Solid speaks with the DJs behind Auckland club night Fully Explicit. Fully Explicit is a monthly club night held in Britomart, downtown Auckland. Free to the public, the night specialises in club bangers, explicit rap and R&B (of … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. This week on The Real Pod, Alex, Jane and Duncan dive straight into a record off the back of week one of The Bachelor NZ season three. What do we … Read more
In this Rent Week reissue, Tim Lambourne shares his triumphant tale of how binge-watching the legal drama Suits helped him win his underdog tenancy dispute. A few years ago I lived in a four bedroom flat on Summer Street in Ponsonby, Auckland. If you’re unfamiliar with the suburb, Summer Street is about three quarters of the … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her first power rankings for contestants of The Bachelor NZ 2017, including many dazzling teeth, Dombo prayers and Zac Franich laughs. “It’s easy to meet people, but hard to find someone,” said our new Bachelor Zac Franich, eyes narrowing on the distance as he tried to figure out what he had just … Read more
To celebrate the opening of the Spark Boroughs Victoria Park basketball court, The Spinoff gathered together a motley crew of musicians and media-types to play a ‘friendly’ game of 5-0n-5. Watch the highlights here. In the media team: Duncan Greive, Madeleine Chapman, Paul Williams, Melanie Bracewell, James Roque, Jamaine Ross. In the music team: Henry … Read more
We sent local Ferndale fanatic James Mustapic along to preview snippets of Shortland Street: The Musical live on stage, because that’s a thing. Big news: there’s a Shortland Street musical in the works and from what I’ve seen of it, it’s iconic. Premiering a rough teaser show as a part of the Auckland Arts Festival, … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, this week featuring Teeth, Fleet Foxes, Weezer, Physical, Shakes and Girl Ray. SONG OF THE WEEK Teeth – ‘Succubus’ Brain-frying self-styled “pan-generational Wellington supergroup”. I’ve been enjoying the Phoenix Foundation’s aging process; their 2015 album Give Up Your Dreams is, to my ears, the best thing they’ve done. … Read more
Chuck Berry died this weekend, aged 90. Nabeel Zuberi remembers the rock pioneer’s personal and musical influence. I was nine years old in 1972 when I was first conscious of hearing or seeing Chuck Berry. His novelty tune ‘My Ding-A-Ling’ was No. 1 on the UK singles charts for what seemed an eternity. I saw … Read more
Game of Bros is back, sans the free Bachelor marketing, and browner than ever. Before the season two premiere, Madeleine Chapman sat down with Game of Bros superfan* Aunty Henga to judge the contestants based solely on their calendar photo and quote. By the time we got to the Game of Bros season finale last year, my Aunty Henga was about … Read more
Alex Casey breaks down the first episode of The Bachelor NZ season three by way of very accurate statistical analysis. The Bachelor NZ roared back into our screens tonight like a burnt orange Suzuki Ignis driven at about 7km an hour by none other than Zac Franich himself. Before I put my stake in the ground … Read more
Sacha Judd finds Justin Bieber’s Purpose World Tour concert at Mt Smart Stadium lacking in fun, energy and, um, purpose. I was pretty excited when my friend gave me a free ticket to Justin Bieber’s Auckland concert on Saturday. I wouldn’t describe myself as a dedicated fan, but the Biebs won me over with his … Read more
Stevie Kaye talks to the editors of Sonic Comic, a multi-media compilation of music, sounds and events, opening this weekend in Auckland. This weekend sees the launch in Auckland of an intriguing new multi-media compilation that bridges the visual and aural, the physical and the digital, art and noise: “Sonic Comic is a collection of … Read more
The Spinoff and Spark proudly present Pod On The Couch, a weekly podcast exploring music and the people that make it. This episode: Jordan Reyne joins host Henry Oliver to talk about singing on horror video games. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver talks to London-based New Zealander Jordan Reyne about singing on the theme song forResident Evil … Read more
New albums from Human Resource, Bush, The Shins and Charli XCX. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Human Resource – Human Resource Auckland political industrial post-hardcore debut. Over the past five years or so, there’s been a rich seam of music from … well, nobody likes or consents to be called a ‘scene’, so let’s say an inchoate … Read more
Longtime Kim Possible fan Pete Douglas blows the cover on his favourite spy television shows of all time. Back in the mid-2000’s my wife and I went on our OE, and had the bizarre idea of living in Cork, Ireland for a year rather than the usual London jaunt. We were cool, we were different, we were … Read more
The coincidences have mounted to the point where it must be asked – has Pitbull come back to the future to warn us about our impending ecological demise? On the release day of his new album Climate Change, Carys Goodwin dares to investigate. It’s 3:05am and I’m staring at a Zumba choreography video set to … Read more
Through tears, Jono Pryor used the final minutes of Jono and Ben last night to shine a light on mental health following the recent suicide of a friend. Jess McAllen discusses the impact of such a raw television moment. The following article contains discussion around mental health and suicide. I’ll let you in on a secret: a … Read more
Please enjoy the second episode of our new online series Repressed Memories, wherein James Mustapic revisits weird local shows from his childhood (click here to watch episode one on Sensing Murder and episode two on Sticky TV) When the first season of New Zealand Idol started, I was eight years old and I wasn’t very interested … Read more
Alex Casey interviews No Activity’s Darren Gilshenan about wearing wet church pants, missing out on Margot Robbie and making something out of nothing. No Activity is a difficult show to describe, and one even harder to recommend. So I’ll just say this: it’s really fucking funny. A low-budget Australian comedy first commissioned by the online … Read more
A huge day for reality television and digital communications of emotion in New Zealand. Hold the phone, hold your loved ones, hold Mike Puru – there are emojis for The Bachelor New Zealand now. The Bachelor NZ launched their BachMoji app for both iOS and Android this morning, rattling the emoji community harder than when … Read more
New Zealand needs to celebrate its songwriting to ensure great songs get written here, says Play It Strange CEO Mike Chunn. Songwriting has stormed through the school gates and is now drawing in many year 13 students who want to fire up their imaginations and write songs. They may have done this before and are … Read more
Waiting cautiously in camouflage behind a piece of shrubbery, Calum Henderson observes a rare endangered species in its natural habitat: current affairs television. You almost don’t want to make too much noise about Sunday in case someone in an office somewhere remembers it still exists and realises they’ve forgotten to cancel it. TVNZ 1’s weekly … Read more
Tara Ward watched Māori TV’s bumper compilation of wild moments from All Talk With Anika Moa last night, and reports back with the cream of the crop. The classic ‘Shag/Marry/Kill’ game never gets old, especially when one of the options is dry humping the Briscoes Lady. This was the quandary Alison Mau faced on last night’s … Read more
Mitch James spent two years busking and playing open mic nights around Europe, sleeping in hostels and on park benches, before getting signed to Sony. Henry Oliver asks him how he did it, and what songs make buskers the most money. Mitch James, a 21-year-old Auckland singer/songwriter has released two singles after being signed by … Read more
Te Radar’s Chequered Past tells the stories of New Zealand’s most colourful characters, both infamous and largely forgotten. He explains what drew him to our hidden histories. There was a moment, caught between a grey Central Otago sky and even greyer rocks strewn through the tussock, that I wondered if this was it. Was I … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. This week on The Real Pod, Alex, Jane and Duncan meet over some lukewarm chocolate-flavoured water to discuss what’s been going on in popular culture and life. In the … Read more
Alex Casey speculates as to the meaning of the single white rose, a new addition to The Bachelor NZ as it enters its third season this Sunday. Some intriguing Bachelor NZ news has rippled through the internet this morning like a fart on a pristine beach: they are introducing a mysterious white rose to the proceedings. … Read more