Home Brew’s debut EP has sparked a craze amongst collectors who are willing to pay big bucks for it. How high will they go? Real Groovy, Tāmaki Makaurau’s most recognisable record store, is where the year’s first sale was made. A second-hand copy of Last Week, the debut EP from Tom Scott’s Aotearoa rap trio Home Brew, was up for sale. Written and recorded in a quickfire two weeks, the celebrated seven-track record was initially released in 2010, including a limited edition vinyl pressing. Now, that record, and its songs, ‘Monday,’ ‘Tuesday,’ ‘Wednesday,’ ‘Thursday,’ ‘Friday,’ ‘Saturday,’ and ..read more

A playlist of irresistible songs that will last the 5km distance you absolutely can run. Exercising has been a safeguard for so many of us against the tedium and, at times, heaviness of lockdown. From walking, running or cycling, to joining one of those outdoor group exercise classes, everyone seems to be enjoying the spring weather and getting some fresh air. Whether we’ll stick with it in a post-pandemic world is another question. When the allure of Friday night drinks or dinners with friends resumes, most of us will inevitably get bored with staying healthy, if we haven’t already.  But ..read more

Travis Scott’s Houston festival tragedy is a warning to concert promoters the world over. Security had been stepped up. Medics were at hand. It wasn’t oversold. Water and food was readily available. Limp Bizkit weren’t playing. By all accounts, every possible measure had been taken to ensure a safe event was under way at Travis Scott’s music festival Astroworld, the headlining rapper’s hometown event held in Houston over the weekend. That didn’t stop a tragedy from unfolding: during Scott’s Friday night set, livestreamed through Apple Music around the world – including being beamed into my lou ..read more

He raises chickens and lives in the bush. He’s also a mysterious rapper approved by Public Enemy’s Chuck D. Who is the real Scalper? A few weeks before Tāmaki Makaurau’s latest lockdown began, Nadeem Shafi rose early and turned himself into a clown. He smeared white paint over his face, and donned a red hat and bow tie to match his nose. Then, as the sun rose, he wandered through the sand dunes at Te Henga clutching a bunch of balloons. It was a quiet morning but to anyone who saw him, Shafi’s confrontational outfit stood out. “These two girls … came around the corner, face-to-face with me,” h ..read more

Five years in the making, Hollie Smith has braved a relationship break-up, confidence issues and multiple lockdowns to make her new album happen. She talks to Chris Schulz. A few weeks into Auckland’s current lockdown, Hollie Smith spray painted a piece of cardboard lime green. She spent time doing her own hair, make-up and wardrobe, then poured herself a gin and tonic and began thinking deep thoughts, about the world and “what I’m doing with my life”. Then she walked downstairs to her makeshift film studio, sat in front of her homemade green screen, lit up a light ring, pressed record, and be ..read more

The singer-songwriter tells us about a notorious Wellington flat, a tantalising rumour and more in this week’s episode of FIRST. Ladyhawke still doesn’t know if there was any truth to the best rumour she ever heard about herself. “To this day I can’t confirm [it]”, she says, but the rumour going around was that Christina Aguilera was going to do a cover of ‘My Delirium‘, the hit single from her 2008 self-titled debut. The singer-songwriter has released two more albums – 2012’s Anxiety and 2016’s Wild Things – since then, and now album number four, Time Flies, is set to be released next month ..read more

Musician Chelsea Jade tells us about her first gig, being addicted to Pokémon Red and more in the latest episode of FIRST. What hasn’t Chelsea Jade done in the name of art? “I’ve gripped a block of ice in the freezing cold for an entire day; I’ve been on stilts, which I don’t know how to do; I’ve had a high-powered fan blown into my face…” she lists some of the highlights. Then there’s her childhood hobby: twice a week she would go and make porcelain dolls in a woman’s basement. “Oh man,” she whispers. “She had this little workshop and you used to just hand paint porcelain, and then you’d mak ..read more

Offshore touts are trying to flog off expensive tickets to concerts all over New Zealand. And sometimes those tickets may not even exist. What can be done to stop it? Adam Webb is hovering over his keyboard, frantically searching for information. He has multiple internet tabs open and fake credit cards laid out on the table in front of him. It’s just after 6am in London, and he’s fresh out of bed, only on his first coffee. But his fingers fly across the keyboard. He’s in the zone – and I don’t dare interrupt him.  “Here’s one,” he says. “It’s a tiny little house in Dundee, Scotland.” Webb ..read more

Tāmaki Makaurau rapper Melodownz tells us about his first gig, first car, a short-lived pet goldfish and more in this week’s episode of FIRST.  Melodownz is an acclaimed Avondale artist / MC / poet who you might have seen interviewing the likes of John Campbell and Paddy Gower over a bowl of kava in his YouTube series Kava Corner. Back in the day, however, it would have been more like Cuppa in the Corona. The popular pre-2000s Toyota sedan, an ancestor of sorts to the modern Camry, was Melodownz’s first car. And it had all the ingredients required to make a cup of tea in the back seat fo ..read more

No one can go to a big gig right now, but a 2020 concert by The Beths has become the lockdown movie experience the country needs. How’d that happen? It was designed to be a brilliant night. After 12 shows around the country, The Beths were in some of the best form of their lives. To close out their nationwide tour, the Auckland-based indie-rock quartet had packed Auckland’s Town Hall for their biggest headline performance yet. Already postponed by Covid-19 restrictions, it was destined to become a cathartic concert experience for 2000 fans to let their hair down after two lengthy lockdowns. Ye ..read more