Music 101 for Saturday 22 August 2020

Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan have launched a cover song competition. So today we celebrate the best cover songs ever as chosen by you!

You can find our playlist of the best cover songs of all time here 

12:00 Top five finalists for the 2020 APRA Silver Scrolls

The Silver Scroll Award is New Zealand's most prestigious songwriting award, recognising outstanding achievement in the craft of songwriting.

Since 1965, the Silver Scroll Award has passed through the hands of some of New Zealand’s most well loved and celebrated songwriters.

The five finalists this year are:

• Reb Fountain - ‘Don’t You Know Who I Am’, written by Reb Fountain
• Nadia Reid - ‘Get The Devil Out’, written by Nadia Reid
• BENEE - ‘Glitter’, written by Stella Bennett, Joshua Fountain and Djesian Suskov
• L.A.B. - ‘In The Air’, written by Ara Adams-Tamatea, Brad Kora, Stu Kora, Joel Shadbolt, and Miharo Gregory
• Troy Kingi - ‘Mighty Invader’, written by Troy Kingi

Click here to find out more about this year's finalists

12:39 The Sampler: Wye Oak

Nick Bollinger reviews American indie rock duo from Baltimore, Wye Oak. Their sound has been described as "earnest folk-influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream pop" as well as indie folk. 

1:25 Bic Runga: Artist in Residence 

Self-isolation has been hard. Art can help everyone. Online arts publication The Pantograph Punch has released its first ever podcast - Artist in Residence. It's an immersive series made in collaboration with ten New Zealand artists across theatre, music, poetry and dance. 

Each episode showcases an artist's personalised performance to help with one thing you may have felt in isolation. Today's piece of music from the series is by none other than Bic Runga.

Bic Runga has been awarded almost every musical honour in New Zealand, including the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll songwriting award. She has won the most New Zealand Music Awards by any individual, ever (twenty).

The piece of music she created for Artist in Residence is called 'Level 2' and is a tentative celebration of starting to come out of lockdown. The six-minute instrumental piece was made during the switch to Alert Level 2 after seven weeks in lockdown.

Bic says, “My mind had the time to run the full gamut of feelings; sadness at the news, gratitude that we were safe, despair, many ominous feelings, but often hope as well that there was a huge potential to reset our world.”

• Click here to find out more about Bic Runga's upcoming North Island tour
• Click here to find out more about Artist in Residence

1:39 The Sampler: Max Richter 

Max Richter is a German born British composer. As of 2019 he passed one billion streams and one million album sales. Outside of composing contemporary classical music, he also composes for stage, opera, ballet and screen and collaborates with other musicians, as well as with performance, installation and media artists. He has recorded eight solo albums, and his music is widely used in cinema. Nick Bollinger reviews Max Richter's music on The Sampler.

2:05 RNZ Music Roundhead Sessions: Katchafire 

RNZ Music was lucky enough to shoot a series of amazing live sessions at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios. We captured performances from Kiwi/Persian rapper CHAII, country powerhouse Tami Neilson, pop-punk quartet Miss June and reggae legends Katachafire.

This week we’re sharing Katchafire’s session. The band have been together for more than 21 years, a milestone they celebrated with the release of their 2018 album 'Legacy' which hit #1 in New Zealand hours after its release. Originally starting as a Bob Marley tribute band, Katchafire have gone on to release 5 albums, and solidify themselves as New Zealand music legends with hits like ‘Giddy up’, ‘Get Away’, and ‘Who You With’. 

Today we share their live superb live versions of ‘Fyah in the Trenches’ and ‘100’.

2:15 The Sampler: Lonnie Holley

Nick Bollinger reviews the music of Lonnie Holley, sometimes known as The Sand Man. Growing up during the Jim Crow era, he's an artist, educator and musician. He’s best known for his spontaneous compositions and improvisational songs that didn’t exist until they came out of his mouth and keyboard, probably never to be played the same way again.

2:45 Paul Kelly 

Paul Kelly has been described as the poet laureate of Australian music and remains one of Australia’s most enduring songwriters. He's always been motivated by a love of words and songs that tell stories.

A new biography, just published, called Paul Kelly: The Man, The Music and The Life In Between written by his first manager, Stuart Coupe, has been receiving excellent reviews. For Music 101 Trevor Reekie talks to Stuart Coupe about his new book about one of Australia’s most influential song-writers. 

3:07 Vayne 

Auckland based and Hamilton raised rapper Vayne is a new kind of artist. Before signing with Sony Music late last year, she was dropping confronting, raw raps as her alter-ego Guttagirl on Soundcloud. Now she’s got a new name, a big label but the same defiant and unashamed energy.

An avid gamer, Vayne borrowed her name from the computer game League of Legends. Known in the game as The Night Hunter, the intimidating champion character is deadly and relentless, which suits Vayne perfectly.

In her recent release ‘YUCK!’ 20 year old Vayne describes the slurs hurled at her from countless men in vivid, remorseless detail. Her music is not for the faint hearted. Vayne’s visual and musical choices are fearless and combative, telling the story of a young woman from a small but mighty country that will not take any crap.

Charlotte Ryan sat down with Vayne and talked discussed music, female empowerment, and her journey from stripper to rapper.

 

3:32 Songcrush 

Tony Stamp is joined by RNZers Yadana Saw and Elliott Childs to check out new songs by Gareth Thomas, Bon Iver and Jamilla Woods. 

 

Songs in this weeks Songcrush:

Hudson Mohawke-  Tar

Gareth Thomas- My Dog

Jamilla Woods- : Sula (Paperback)

Laura Veirs-: Burn Too Bright

Bon Iver -AUATC

Eddie Chacon- Trouble

Whitney -Strange Overtones

 

4:11 The Mixtape: Alice Snedden 

Alice Snedden is a woman of many talents. She’s a Billy T nominated comedian, podcast host, playwright, columnist, trained lawyer and host of Alice Snedden’s Bad News, a docu-comedy series that wrestles with some of the most confusing political and social issues confronting Aotearoa in 2020. The critically acclaimed series is back for its second season and sees Alice traverse the country to locate different perspectives and find herself everywhere from the set of Shortland Street, to the play room of a brothel, to being thrown out of Parliament’s Banquet Hall and threatened with legal action.

From her podcast with fellow comedian Rose Matafeo ‘Boners of the Heart’ to her stand up show ‘Absolute Monster’ almost all of Alice’s endeavours are critically acclaimed. Yet she claims her greatest skill is her ability to do absolutely nothing. 

Charlotte Ryan sat down with her to talk about life, death and her favourite songs on this weeks episode of The Mixtape. 

Songs on Alice's Mixtape 

Under the Table- Fiona Apple

Misty Blue-Dorothy Moore

Tougher Than The Rest- Bruce Springsteen

Hold Tight-Che Fu

NASA- Ariana Grande

Guilty- Barbara Streisand Feat the Barry Gibb

 

Songs played on today's show

Troy Kingi - Mighty Invader

Nadia Reid - Get The Devil Out

Benne - Glitter 

LAB - In The Air

Reb Fountain - Don’t you know who I am

The Hot 8 Brass Band  - Sexual Healing

Hatea Kapa Haka - Bohemian Rhapsody

It's Oh So Quiet- Björk

Lorde - Swingin Party

The Lemondheads - Mrs Robinson

Petula Clark - Tu Perds Ton Temps (Please Please Me) 

Ngaire - To Sir with Love

The Byrds -  Mr. Tambourine Man

The Fearless Flyers - Kenni and The Jets 

Donny Hathaway - Jealous guy

Stephen Malkmus - Death and The Maiden

M. Ward - Let's Dance 

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah 

TEEKS - Without You

The Gaylettes - Son of A Preacher Man 

The Slits - I Heard It Through The Grapevine