Is the new Shadows really all it's cracked up to be? Photo / Supplied
Is the new Shadows really all it's cracked up to be? Photo / Supplied
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America doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to adapting beloved cult properties (see Spaced, The I.T. Crowd and Red Dwarf for some shocking attempts) so I'll admit to a little apprehension about them having a crack at adapting Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's lo-fi mockumentary movie,What We Do in the Shadows. Fortunately someone over there realised that the best people to adapt this thing was probably the creators. So that's who they got. Pleasingly nothing has been lost in its voyage across the seas, despite a whole new cast - including the smashingly funny Matt Berry - the TV show has captured the same vibes and dry humour of the original. Invite these vampires into your home via either SoHo or Neon.
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For Lawrence Arabia, his album Singles Club has been a year in the making. For me it's been six months in the listening. I checked in with Auckland's dapper muso around the half-way point of his ambitious project; a crowdfunded record that would see him releasing a brand new single each month until the album was done. Or alternatively, as the slightly frazzled dude said when I talked to him, he collapsed. Pleasingly, he made it to the finish line and it's now available in its entirety. With its long and unusual gestation, the album's vibe swings depending on how he was feeling that month. But with a musician of his calibre you're not gonna find any duds here and it remains astonishingly coherent and faithful to his take on swinging 60s, indie pop.
Netflix's brilliant new movie-length doco Behind the Curve follows a handful of key players in the Flat Earth movement - which, yes, really is a thing. Flat Earthers, as they call themselves, believe that we live on a stationary flat disc that's encased in a giant dome. Yes, they're aware of the abundance of scientific evidence that proves this belief is a little, shall we say, kooky, which is why this doco shows them conducting their own experiments to prove otherwise. While Behind the Curve could've been a jeering take-down, it's far better than that, rising above cheap shots to tell its extremely compelling, at times very cringey, story and show the normal(ish) people behind the wacky beliefs. I, however, am not above such cheap shots so will sum up this recommendation by saying: you don't have to be crazy to be a Flat Earther ... but it helps!
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Saturday's a big night for bass music junkies. A posse of legendary producers will be pouring into - and no doubt packing out - Pointers nightclub down at the Viaduct. We're talking the likes of long time drum 'n' bass ambassador Doc Scott, the influential 2-step don Zed Bias and Bristol's heavy roller DLR, among others. This all-star line-up has assembled to give Auckland a taste of what's on offer at the Outlook Festival, Croatia's mammoth four-day celebration of bass music culture. No, it won't be quite the same as being there but it'll still be an exceptionally tasty night of rolling beats, bone-rattling subs and an absolute must for any junglists in the area.
