Sniffing out hot music trends is the raison d'etre of Auckland DJ duo SNIFFERS.
Comprised of Kiwi music blog gurus Rikihana Douglas (ex Sony Music) and Dan Woolston, SNIFFERS have forged a reputation for serving up exciting new sounds to the listening public via a popular George FM show, music blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
"We were approached by Tiger to throw some names of music acts in the ring for Streets of Singapore at Portland Public House," says Douglas. "We are passionate about supporting local music so were thrilled to jump on the bill."
Tiger Streets of Singapore brings the authentic, creative buzz of the streets that led to the birth of Tiger Beer to Auckland and Wellington audiences. The events (held previously at Street Food Collective and Little Easy) have also been a launch pad for three new beers ¬- Tiger White, Tiger Green and Tiger Black.
The three beers (excuse the pun) will be on offer again at the Portland Public House on Friday April 29, but music is the main focus of the night.
Rikihana from SNIFFERS will be joined by Jonny-Long Legs from She's So Rad for a DJ set at the start of the evening. Douglas says we should expect some left-of-centre indie rock, with a few choice tracks by recently departed musical legends.
"Really sad news about Prince, we'll have to include some of his music into the set for sure," Douglas says. "But we'll also be playing great new music by the likes of Alt J and Warpaint."
The DJ set will be followed by live sets from two hot new Kiwi bands, The Leers and Racing.
Douglas describes The Leers as "similar in style to Alt J and the Foals, with clean guitar lines and the full package they really are a must see live". The four-piece from Mt Maunganui have recently released an album Are You Curious digitally on Bandcamp plus a rather quaint limited edition cassette. The headline act Racing contains two members of celebrated North Shore indie band The Checks.
"When I was a kid I used to come up to Auckland to watch The Checks play live, so I'm really excited about what Racing are doing now," says Douglas.
Racing performed at Rhythm and Vines in 2015 and have released a number of music videos (all of which can be viewed on YouTube). Self-described as hypno rock, their live sets are ferociously energetic.
Art has been a key component of all the Tiger Streets of Singapore events, with 'Woks of Art' on display at each outing. Leading New Zealand artists have used woks from the street vendors of Singapore as a canvas for their creations; a wok created by Mark Hetherington will be featured at the Portland Public House on the evening.
SNIFFERS are probably best known for their dance music sets but Douglas is excited to have the opportunity to sate the appetites of rock'n'roll fans for the evening.
"It will be a real celebration of cool guitar-based independent rock music. And it will be a great opportunity to sample the amazing new Tiger Beer range."