Born in the fifties

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis Durham groove to the 50s beat. Photo / Supplied

Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis Durham come from a family obsessed with music, fashion and technology from the 50s. So it's no surprise the three siblings - aged 16, 21 and 19 respectively - formed a band and play vintage music that sounds like it comes from that era.

Calling themselves, rather appropriately, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, the multi-instrumentalist trio play guitar, piano, banjo, lap-steel, harmonica, double bass, ukulele, trombone and accordion between them, and they play Auckland's Montecristo Room on December 16.

The band recently supported Coldplay on their US Ampitheatre Tour in July and August, with Chris Martin a big fan of their vintage sound.

Their self-titled debut album, recorded by Lewis and his dad, Graeme, in their home studio in Kentish Town, London, was released in 2008. It's made up of a mix of covers of songs Graeme used to sing to the trio when they were children, and original material like Lewis' love-lorn Buggin' Blues, which is, well, pretty buggin', and latest single (Baby) Hold Me Tight, written by Kitty.

Tickets to Kitty, Daisy, & Lewis go on sale from undertheradar.co.nz and Real Groovy Records on September 28.

Meanwhile, as generation-spanning supergroups go they don't get much better than Them Crooked Vultures. Made up of Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards, former Nirvana drummer and head Foo Fighter Dave Grohl on drums, and Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme on guitar and vocals, TCV play two shows in New Zealand on January 29 at TSB Bank Arena in Wellington and January 30 at Auckland's Vector Arena.

Homme and Grohl first worked together when the latter played drums on the Queens' 2002 classic Songs For the Deaf, but the first rumours of the TCV project cropped up in 2005 when Grohl mentioned it in an interview.

Coming up before the end of the year are weird and wonky Baltimore band Animal Collective who play the Powerstation on December 8.

Made up of long-time friends and musical collaborators, who go by the names of Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin, and Geologist, this year's excellent Merriweather Post Pavilion is the group's eighth and most accessible album. But beware, it's still pretty twisted.

New York pop rock-meets-dance punk band Cobra Starship, who have a truly 80s "keytar" player in their band, play the Auckland Town Hall on March 12. They were last here in 2008 supporting Panic At the Disco. And for something completely different, country music great Glen Campbell returns to New Zealand for three shows, including a November 20 concert at the Civic in Auckland, and a date at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua the night after.

On the local front, following on from their shows in May and June Fly My Pretties have announced two encore shows for the end of the year at the Civic in Auckland, December 4, and Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre on December 5.

And Anika Moa is on a nationwide tour of small places, everywhere from Kaitaia in the far north to the Stewart Island community centre down south, to spread a little aroha around Aotearoa. The tour starts on October 29 in Akaroa. See www.myspace.com/anikamoa for all 22 tour dates.