Dress to impress

LEDERHOSEN LUCIL is one classy chick. So you better get dolled up when you go to her shows next month.

The Canadian alt-pop artist with the fraulein costumes comes to expand her cult following to New Zealand next month, accompanied by DJ Jester and her collection of vintage keyboards.

The clothes? A designer for the Paul Frank label saw a performance she did in Toronto and begged her to let him design her graphics and stage attire. And the Teutonic influence extends to song titles - Herr Noit, Fur Annabella, Meinie Augen - on her last album Tales from the Pantry.

Lucil (real name Krista Muir) grew up in Ontario taking classical piano lessons and listening to the Clash, the Ramones, Patsy Cline, and the Pet Shop Boys. She is currently taking her toytown pop around Australia in support of Kid Koala. She plays the Kings Arms, Auckland, February 10 (with the Reduction Agents and Golden Axe); O'Flahertys, Napier, February 11; Indigo, Wellington, February 12 (with Cortina and Disasterradio); The Mussell Inn, Onekaka, February 16; Jetset Lounge, Christchurch, February 17 (with Shocking Pinks); and Arc Cafe, Dunedin, February 18 (with Dick the Phone).

Meanwhile, sonic sickos Trans Am return to New Zealand in April with special guests the [expletive] Champs.

On their last album, Liberation, Trans Am so successfully captured the sound of terror and militarism in today's America that they were offered several hundred thousand dollars for a song to be used in a Hummer ad. The band refused.

The Champs have been playing "true metal" and meshing heavy riffing with keyboard spasms since 1992.

TransAm and the [expletive] Champs play the Kings Arms, Auckland, April 1 and Indigo Bar, Wellington, April 2.

GROOVY, BABY

This year's Groove in the Park will be the first all-local line-up in the free event's three-year history, featuring drum'n'bass lads Shapeshifter and a line-up of local DJs including Nice N Urlich, Manuel Bundy, Submariner and Cian. In keeping with the Waitangi Day theme, Te Umere O Te Aroha Kapa Haka group will also perform.

Organisers George FM and the Auckland City Council are expecting more than 20,000 people to gather in the Auckland Domain from midday to late on February 6.

"New Zealand music has become so big and successful that it's finally reached a point where there's no cultural cringe," says spokesperson Greg Stoffels. "People want to hear the locals as much as anything else."

But not all the local acts originally on the bill will make it. The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, who had planned to play with Shapeshifter on a massive, custom-built stage, have been forced to cancel because of a tree. Yep, apparently one measly branch was all that stood in the way of the 25m-long stage fitting in Lovers Lane, (the area approved for the structure), and the council are refusing to meddle with nature. Filling in for them will be dance-roots band Kora.