Ladi6 with Team Dynamite

Touring NZ August

Tickets for The Powerstation Friday 22nd August from www.ticketmaster.co.nz

 

Tickets for other gigs available from www.eventticketing.co.nz

 

Released last year to great acclaim, their third album AUTOMATIC was recorded between Detroit’s legendary Studio and Revolver Studios in Waiuku. It was hailed by the NZ Herald in a breathless five-star review as a ‘sonic stunner’, and even professional curmudgeon Simon Sweetman declared it “the record of her career”..”slinky and groovy and - sonically - it’s a joy”. It debuted at number three on the national charts and featured on many end-of-year ‘best of’ lists.

This year has seen the band make their dubut tour of Brazil, and they are about to embark on a comprehensive tour of Europe and, for the first time, the US. Their mid-winter tour of NZ is something of a victory lap for Ladi, Parks, Brandon Haru and Julien Dyne - a band who have always let the music speak for itself.

In support are hotly-tipped Auckland hip-hop collective Team Dynamite. Their laid-back, jazz influenced style has invited comparisons to A Tribe Called Quest, Outkast and De La Soul, albeit with a distinctively NZ Flavour. Their latest release, the album Shepherd’s Delight features guest appearances from members of Hombrew, @peace and Che Fu and was highly praised by reviewers for its “great mix of sharp flow, clever lines and warm production, evoking the DIY East Coast sound of ’90s. [Team Dynamite] navigate easily between social commentary, quirky metaphors and retrospect.” (NZ Musician).

 

Guilty Simpson

Sunday 3rd August, 7:00pm

Ponsonby Social Club

Support from DylanC & DJ Hudge.

Free Entry

 

Check out a recent interview with Guilty Simpson over at Grindin here

Guilty Simpson was born in Detroit, the son and grandson of the family’s performing musicians in his father and grandfather. At age four, Simpson and his mother began traveling with an aunt in the military, living in California and Birmingham, Alabama, before settling back in the Motor City at 15. Big Daddy Kane, N.W.A, and Scarface were all major influences, but it was Queens-bred street bard Kool G Rap who made the biggest impression. “That’s my crème de la crème rapper right there,” says Simpson, his own presence among the latest in a rich lineage of heavy-handed MCs. For years Guilty Simpson has been a rock on the Detroit hip-hop circuit alongside those such as J Dilla, Slum Village, Eminem (whom Guilty still calls “Marshall”) & D12, Obie Trice, Proof, Phat Kat and Black Milk. A member of the Almighty Dreadnaughtz crew, Guilty emerged as a sound to be reckoned with after linking with producer Dilla in 2001. In the midst of recording an album’s worth of material on the MC – including the recently released duet “Take Notice” off of Dilla’s heralded Ruff Draft album – Dilla gave Simpson his first appearance on disc with “Strapped” (from 2003’s Jaylib album). 2006 marked his allegiance with Stones Throw Records – at Dilla’s behest – and appearances on both Chrome Children installments and subsequent tour. It’s taken years, but finally Simpson’s full-length solo debut, Ode to the Ghetto, brings him worldwide, chronicling a life led in the rough-hewn city that birthed him. Featuring an all-star cast of producers normally reserved for those signed to six-figure deals (J Dilla, Madlib, Denaun Porter of D-12), Ode to the Ghetto marks an evolution, incorporating a more topical and thought-provoking persona in addition to the extra-savage braggadocio Simpson is known for. “I want to make the consumer care about the music again,” the 31-year-old explains. Guilty’s testosterone-charged, inner city themes possess of a sense of humor at times so side-splitting, it only proves how serious he really is. This rapper was raised on the field of battle and he has more to say than just how fresh he is and how fresh “they” are not. As a matter of fact, he’s found that he’s here to remind the hip-hop world – currently captivated with that manufactured freshness – that life in the ghetto is real. The evidence shows excessive use of double entendres, too much flavor on public grounds, microphone assault, and verbal harassment of an officer of the law. On the counts of freshness AND realness: The Court of Hip-Hop finds Mr. Simpson to be Guilty.

 

 

Something We Can Dance To

Golden Dawn Tavern Of Power

Saturday 26th July from 8pm

DJs Kirk James, Campbell Ngata, Jubt

From Base FM the Boil Up show's Kirk James and Jubt, and The BOP's boogie boss Campbell Ngata comes Something We Can Dance To. No need to harass the DJs for tunes: they've got the dance floor covered.  

 

 

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Return to New Zealand

Thursday 4th September

Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland

Tickets available here from Ticketmaster

 

Billions, Daptone Records and Whitepaper are delighted to announce Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings will be gracing New Zealand once again for one show in Auckland this September.

After facing a brave battle with cancer, this is a triumphant return to the stage for Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ and comes off the back of a very well-received release of Give the People What They Want earlier this year.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings formed out of the ashes of Desco Records, a fiercely independent label that developed an international underground following for releasing hard funk vinyl in the nineties. After the label’s demise in 1999, the family of musicians that populated it’s roster regrouped to form an all-star band that would become the core of the Daptone Records stable. It was obvious that the new label’s first release would be the debut full length of the fiery Sharon Jones. 2002’s Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings would prove to be the birth of a juggernaut.

For over a decade, the band has travelled the world, blowing minds with their explosive live performances and their raw, hand-crafted studio recordings.  While other artists have ridden the crests and troughs of passing fads, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings have bypassed the hype-and-hit superhighway and taken a detour straight to the hearts and bodies of their listeners, transcending fleeting trends and demographics and delivering a visceral rhythm and soul sound to an ever-expanding base of deeply loyal fans.  

New Zealand fans can expect a stellar show from this prolific band, as Give the People What They Want is poised to become not only an iconic album, but a fixture in the canon of Soul Music. With the album offering up "an up-tempo stomper with ominous, thundering arrangements, and marches directly into the pulsing Detroit-flavoured soul” through to mellow feel-good anthems, their new work delivers every bit of the unbridled soul and studio acumen that defines this bands’ universally loved sound.

Expect a captivating and energetic show from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Don’t miss out. 

Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster on 15 July 2014.

Sick Disco and Cassette Nine are thrilled to finally be joined by Adelaide favourite, Inkswel.