Shayne Carter must be dialling all his mates, because one of the Straitjacket Fits reunion gigs has already sold out. An extra date at the Studio in Auckland on Thursday has been added. There are no tickets left for the Friday show , but tickets are still available for next Saturday night.

Local up-and-comers Die! Die! Die! - who just finished recording their debut album in Chicago with producer Steve Albini - play support for the Auckland shows on Thursday and Saturday and for Christchurch and Dunedin on May 6 and 7. The sold-out Auckland show will be supported by Melbourne-based Kiwis Cassette, who have also just finished their debut album.

In Wellington, at Bar Bodega on April 29 and 30, the support act is HDU.

Later in the month, local breaks duo Baitercell and Schumacher tour to promote their album Wall of Bass Technique. The album is a crunkalicious affair fusing electro, techno, breaks and hip-hop and features cameos from Mareko, Jordan Reyne and the Fast Crew. The duo are playing at Fu, April 22, Battle of the Breaks, Phat Club, Nelson, April 30; Sandwiches, Wellington, April 23; Subculture, Queenstown, May 5; Bath Street, Dunedin, May 6 and Home, Christchurch, May 7.

No strangers to life on the road, the D4 are preparing to sake-bomb the public with a live taste of their rocking new album Out of My Head. The band are coming off a tour in Japan, where they performed an emotional gig in Tokyo following the death of Guitar Wolf bass player Hideaki Seiguchi who was booked to play the same show.

On their return, they play Masonic, Devonport, May 13; Kings Arms, May 14; Bar Bodega, Wellington, May 19; Esplanade Tavern, Christchurch, May 20; Sammy's, Dunedin, May 21; and the Penguin Club, Oamaru, May 22.

Also on her way to New Zealand is 21-year-old Russian-born London-raised jazz-pop singer Katie Melua, otherwise known as "the new Norah Jones". Her Call off the Search was the biggest-selling album in Britain last year (sales are now at two million), holding the No 1 chart position for six weeks. The Brits obviously like a girl who can incorporate the phrase "I could sniff some powdered rhino horn" in her lyrics. See her at the Civic Theatre, Auckland, on Tuesday May 31.

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Girl meets boy

Anna Paquin is playing a boy in her latest role. The Piano Oscar winner, who can be seen in the horror film Darkness, is the voice of hero Ray Steam in the English version of the anime movie Steamboy, the long awaited follow-up to 1988's Akira by Japanese animator/director Katsuhiro Otomo.

The movie concerns the adventures of Ray, a young inventor who lives in London in the 1850s. His grandfather, who lives in the United States, sends him an invention called the Steam Ball which, unbeknown to Ray, harnesses a menacing power.