Chatterbox: Fans flocking to Straitjacket Fits

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.

* * *

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.

Steamboy took eight years to make and cost $28 million - the most expensive anime movie ever made.

* * *

Get set to blub

There won't be any Maori girls riding whales but there should be plenty to blubber about when No 2 hits cinemas next year.

Shooting will wrap in Auckland tomorrow on the film adaptation of Kiwi Toa Fraser's award-winning play - once the crew complete some of the movie's more emotional scenes.

The comedy-drama marks the Kiwi-Fijian writer's directing debut. It tells of an elderly Fijian matriarch (played by 82-year-old American screen legend Ruby Dee) who summons her grandchildren home to name her successor.

Thanks to our endless summer, the crew enjoyed a dream run, including 24 days of filming in a Mt Roskill garden. Madeleine Sami, whose stage performance of all the parts won praise at the Edinburgh Festival, missed getting a role in the film.

* * *

Greg Johnson in Greenwich Village

Chatterbox caught up with Greg Johnson in New York, where the Kiwi songwriter touched down last month for two shows and a song-writing session on Long Island, before heading back to his adopted hometown of LA.

Accompanied on acoustic guitar by fellow New Zealander Ted Brown, Johnson gave a characteristically assured performance at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, sitting at a battered Yamaha grand piano once graced by a young Bob Dylan.

The odd Kiwi could be spotted singing earnestly along in the shadows, and Johnson's thoughtful, sunny brand of pop music seemed to please the crowd of pallid New Yorkers weathering the tail-end of a long winter.

So, Greg, how's life treating you?

Johnson: It's great. We're looking closer and closer to a deal with a US label. We've been getting a lot of TV stuff, too. We were on a Sports Illustrated show on NBC the other day. I haven't seen it. My songs, with scantily clad girls. I wish I'd seen it.

So no plans to head home anytime soon, then?

Johnson: I love New Zealand, you know. But if you're a fisherman, you have to go out to sea. Otherwise you're not going to catch much.

Right. And how do you like New York?

Johnson: What's not to like?

Ever thought of moving here?

Johnson: I think I might be a bit old to live in New York. I know what my instincts would be here, and I don't think they'd be particularly, um, helpful. You know, it's not just the rent, it's going out all the time.

Brown: Either that, or you'd spend all your money on rent so you'd have a nice place to live, and you wouldn't be able to go out. And then what's the point of living in New York? You may as well live in Texas.

Johnson: Or Palmerston North.

How does the fact that you're from New Zealand go over in the United States? New Zealand seems to be the flavour of the month here these days.

Johnson: It doesn't really make any difference. There are people here from all over the world. You're not going to wow the music community by waving a New Zealand flag.

Brown: You'd have more chance with a Swedish flag. They've got a better hit rate.

How's your Swedish accent?

(Johnson imitates Swedish accent.)

Brown: That's Dutch. They're no good at pop music.

Johnson: You're right. They've got no hits, the Dutch. Can you name a single Dutch band that's had a number one hit?

Brown: Milli Vanilli.

There you go.

Brown: Now, probably one of the biggest exports from Down Under is the Wiggles.

Johnson: They're on the Australian label I just signed to. That's why they can afford to sign bastards like me.

You're on the same label as the Wiggles?

Johnson: I am. And proud of it.