‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK? ????/???? The Chainsmokers – ‘Paris’ ???? On first listen, The Chainsmokers’ latest, ‘Paris’, is pretty bad. But listen to it a second, third, fourth time, and you might not stop. It’s the synth-heavy pop-drop they dominated … Read more
Last week, The Spinoff’s music editor wrote a negative review of Ed Sheeran’s new track, ‘Shape of You’. Mitchell Houlbrooke read that review, disagreed vehemently, and sent us this response. Many people, including The Spinoff’s own Henry Oliver, are not impressed with the new Ed Sheeran single, ‘Shape of You’. It has been variously accused of … Read more
Editor’s note, January 20 2017: This post has been removed at the author’s request. Emily writes about the original post, the response, and her decision to take it down here. Thank you Lana for this post, I hope it’s shared widely. I apologise sincerely for my ignorance and racism https://t.co/ffTwP1PuLF — Emily Writes (@DearMama_) January … Read more
Every year Shihad’s 1997 single ‘Home Again’ helps countless New Zealanders remember how Daylight Saving works. But as Calum Henderson discovers, its famous opening line was almost something completely different. Jon Toogood was 24 years old when he wrote one of the great New Zealand song lyrics. “Put your clock back for the winter” is … Read more
Amelia Langford examines her fascination with Hoarders, and picks some of her favourite moments from the gut-wrenching reality show. I’ve never met a ‘freegan’ but my friend Harriet used to live with one. She said it became difficult to throw anything away – permanently at least. “I once threw out my shampoo bottle, which … 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: Host Henry Oliver and Mana editor Leonie Hayden talk to Laneway co-promoter Mark Kneebone. Henry Oliver and Leonie Hayden talk to Mark Kneebone about the ins and outs of the Laneway festival. Either download … Read more
Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases. ALBUM OF THE WEEK The xx – I See You With four years and a solo project passing since the last communique from skeletal suburban R&B trio The xx, the roll-out of third full-length album I See You has been surprisingly light on fanfare – … Read more
Henry Oliver watches the award-winning series Mozart in the Jungle, one of the lighter offerings from an era of often-traumatic Peak TV. Things are getting dark in this Golden Age of Television. ‘Drama’ is now a synonym for existential dread, bloody violence and sexual assault. ‘Comedy’ is now a synonym for existential dread, relationship problems … Read more
Stevie Kaye talks to The xx’s Romy Madley Croft about soft-rock, songwriting camps, and the band’s progression on their new album. Today, UK trio The xx are releasing their new album I See You into a very different world than that of their 2009 self-titled debut. And it’s a world they’ve helped change. The sparse, … Read more
Calum Henderson review Maigret, the two-part detective drama featuring the man in the Mini as you’ve never seen before. Mr. Bean is back, baby … only this time he’s a pipe-smoking police detective in 1950s Paris. It’s not quite “Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher” levels of outrageousness, but Rowan Atkinson is still a bit of … Read more
VIDEO PREMIERE: Randa recalls meeting the Dirty Girls and shooting his new video ‘Apollo Creed’. I gaze up at Amber who has just climbed a 12-foot ladder and is now hugging the top of a palm tree at Papas & Beer, an outdoor night club extravaganza in Rosarito, Mexico. Maybe it’s wrong to appear gleeful … Read more
Will The Project usurp Hosking? Will Shortland Street bring back Lionel? Will Dominic Bowden take his place in The Bachelor circle of life? We look bravely to the year ahead and pluck out the most promising bits of local television programming. Survivor New Zealand It feels like 1000 years have passed since Lana Coc-Kroft had a deadly … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored segment where we peruse the extensive Lightbox catalogue for shows you might like to watch. This week, Alice Webb-Liddall creates a vision board of shows to help you become the best can be in 2017. Swamp People There’s nothing like a bit of tragic reality television to make you … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Song of the Week Grouper – ‘Headache’ In case you missed it: Paradise Valley, a new Grouper 7″ released just before Christmas, is everything you might hope it would be. ‘Headache’ is the longer of the two tracks, and stands … Read more
The long journey that turned Shayne Carter, one of New Zealand’s great guitar heroes, into a classical piano music fan. Like most people under 70, I’d always found classical music a bit of a bore, a wing of the museum I hadn’t found the key for, the property of blue rinses bussed in from the … Read more
Alex Casey and Madeleine Chapman live blog the highs and lows of the 2017 Golden Globe awards, for all of you poor folk stuck in the office pretending to work. This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought to you thanks to the excellent folk at Lightbox. Do us and … Read more
Back in April Duncan Greive interviewed Emily Edrosa as Street Chant’s long-delayed second album Hauora was released. The pair discussed the often-grim realities of life as a woman in the New Zealand music industry. Content warning: contains discussion of sexual assault. Originally published April 27, 2016 I met with Emily Edrosa twice in April. We went … Read more
New Zealand is rightly proud of the multi-ethnic and -cultural society it’s growing into. But while Māori and Pacific representation has improved since the ’80s, our exploding Asian population remains near-invisible. Sonia Gray tries to find out why. Originally published May 17, 2016 Lately, I’ve been looking at the people around me and looking at … Read more
Brave scientist and television enthusiast Lucy Zee attempts to solve one of the last remaining mysteries of modern times: at what moment does Elliot in Mr Robot become irresistibly attractive? Originally posted September 22, 2016 There’s no doubt that Mr Robot is one of the most engrossing, trippiest shows of 2016. But apart from the intriguing storyline, … Read more
A Rihanna logo inspired by death metal bands featured prominently at the VMAs this year. David Farrier followed some rabbit holes to locate the designer behind the whole thing. Originally posted September 7, 2016′ One of the best things that happened at this year’s VMAs was this: Rihanna has always been pretty amazing, but seeing her … Read more
When Duncan Greive reviewed Filthy Rich earlier this year he was overwhelmed with messages from a depressed New Zealand TV industry. Here he summarises what they had to say. Part of an ongoing series assessing our publicly funded television. Read part two, comparing TVNZ with the BBC, here. Originally published February 29, 2016 A couple of weeks … Read more
Sam Heughan is farmer, fugitive and all round Scottish spunkrat Jamie Fraser in fantasy-drama Outlander, the second season of which arrived exclusively to Lightbox on April 10 this year. Longtime fan Tara Ward swallowed her nerves and spoke with Sam ahead of the premiere (please note, contains spoilers from season one). Originally posted March 24, 2016 Last … Read more
A Black woman living in New Zealand talks about this year’s infamous episode of Real Housewives, and why it’s indicative of a broader racist culture in New Zealand we still refuse to acknowledge. Originally posted September 23, 2016 This week’s episode of Real Housewives has left many people shocked. They cannot believe that there are … Read more
A week after Leonard Cohen passed away in November, Bic Runga recalled memorising his songwriting advice, driving to his monastery and supporting him on tour in 2010. Originally published November 15, 2016 There aren’t too many artists I would call myself fanatical about, but Leonard Cohen is one of them. When I first started to write … Read more
The history of New Zealand television features plenty of lowlights, but few as low as the drunken and chaotic 1987 Listener Gofta Awards. Comedian Michele A’Court was there. First published January 14, 2016 It is possible that I am one of the few people who has fond memories of the 1987 Gofta Awards. It’s also … Read more
Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa is currently on at Auckland Museum. Don Rowe visits, is astounded, and comes away considering a Southern Cross tattoo out of love for this country. Deep within the bowels of the Auckland Museum lurks the nucleus of music in New Zealand. Like some forbidden experiment, it’s sequestered behind sliding opaque … Read more
Henry Oliver sits down with Connan Mockasin and Liam Finn ahead of their collaborative performance, with Lawrence Arabia, at Wondergarden, a new music festival in Auckland this New Year’s Eve. The Spinoff: Have you been preparing musically or do you just need to be mentally prepared? Liam Finn: We’ve been preparing via email and text … Read more
We asked a whole bunch of people who are involved in music in different ways for their top three albums and songs of the year, both locally and internationally. Here are the results. We all love a good list. And if you love lists, December is a month like no other. ‘The Best of Everything … Read more
After much heated debate in the Spinoff television department, we present this list of local TV moments that made 2016 the weird and wonderful mess that it was. Mark Richardson apologises to Brendon McCullum on The Crowd Goes Wild The funniest four minutes of New Zealand television all year. It took fifteen long years but … Read more