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    • How Did I Get Hear? #17 - Alan Gregg on Ed Cake's "Downtown Puff"
      • Behold the Golden Man! Some time in the mid-1990s I was sitting on a sofa in Auckland watching a Saturday morning kids’ TV show called What Now? A band came on and played a song which featured the lyric “If I go to hospital / Will you administer my pill?” I had no idea who they were, but the song was brilliant, and one of the band members appeared to have springs attached to the soles of his shoes. A few weeks later I met two members of that band, Edmund McWilliams and Geoff Maddock, at a Supergroove show at Auckland University. We talked about our shared enthusiasm for the music of Jonathan Richman, and they gave me a cassette(!) of some songs they were working on. When I got home and played the cassette it was a revelation. It contained intensely melodic songs with absurd lyrics and unusual arrangements. I felt like I’d stumbled upon some kind of secret treasure. They were pop songs, but not like anything I’d heard before. The songs on that cassette later turned into the eponymous Bressa Creeting Cake album (Flying Nun Records 1997), which is still spoken of in reverential tones in certain circles. The three piece Bressa Creeting Cake band, with Joel Wilton on drums, came on tour around New Zealand with The Mutton Birds (who I played bass with), and it felt like a privilege to watch them play these amazing songs to baffled audiences each night. By that time Edmund McWilliams was becoming better known under the moniker Edmund Cake. In 1999 Edmund and I played together in Bic Runga’s band, when she supported Paul Kelly on a tour of Australia. On that trip I saw first hand how Ed’s approach was not like other musicians I knew. At one show Bic’s band was invited to join Paul Kelly and his band onstage for their encore, and during the song Ed played Paul Kelly’s acoustic guitar with such intensity that his hand bled all over the body of the guitar. At soundcheck the next day Paul Kelly’s unimpressed guitar technician greeted Ed with the guitar and a cleaning cloth. Ed set to work making it spotless, and we weren’t invited onstage for the encore again. Bressa Creeting Cake split up around that time, and Geoff Maddock formed the band Goldenhorse, which went on to become hugely popular in New Zealand. All of this is a very longwinded way of getting to the point that after the demise of Bressa Creeting Cake, Edmund Cake made a solo album called Downtown Puff (Lil’ Chief Records 2004), which I consider to be a masterpiece. Around the time Bressa Creeting Cake ended, an A&R man from the Dreamworks record label in LA came to visit Ed in New Zealand and gave him an advance to make some demos. Ed recorded three songs and sent them to the label. After not hearing from the A&R guy for a while, Ed called him in LA to ask what he thought of the songs. He replied that they were “Quite great”. Dreamworks did not sign Edmund Cake to the label in the end, but they did sign a little-known artist named Nelly Furtado. In the meantime, Tim Finn had become a supporter of Ed’s music and lent him some recording equipment for a studio Ed had assembled in a building in Gore Street in Auckland. Neil Finn had also become a fan and gave Ed time to complete Downtown Puff in his own studio. Edmund Cake is an unusually talented songwriter. He has a gift for composing melodies and chord changes which are both surprising and breathtakingly beautiful. He’s also able to write lyrics which can be funny and strangely affecting at the same time. And he doesn’t sound like anyone else. On Downtown Puff Ed played most of the instruments, and he engineered and produced the songs himself. It’s an album that constantly treads the line between the sublime and the ridiculous, and sometimes does both at the same time. "You’re Watching Me” and “Beautiful Sleep” are ballads as melodic and effortless as any I can think of. The song "Gunga" sounds like Captain Beefheart jamming with Devo on the set of Sesame Street. “My Son the Harpist” tells the story, over an Omnichord drum beat, of a young harp player who meets a tragic end. Ed was improvising the lyrics the first time he ever recorded the vocal on that song and he never changed them. As a result, there are some spontaneous words in that song that you won’t find in any dictionary. The song “Oh Baby Bear” is the catchiest song you’ll ever hear about the Auckland Public Transport system. Ed sings “She’s got a cuppa tea and sandwich, she’s feeling fine / She just crossed the Pukapuka line,” all delivered in a fair dinkum Kiwi accent. Perhaps Downtown Puff’ s master stroke is the track “Golden Man”, which sounds a bit like a 1970s psychedelic folk band singing a gospel song. The poetic lyrics, swooping melodies and Ed’s trademark falsetto vocals all contribute to the song’s eerie beauty. “He commands the cats to claw / He commands the boats to shore / He commands the gulls to fly / He commands the crops to die”. Sometimes Edmund’s music can evoke the genius of Brian Wilson in the way he can take really unusual chord changes and make them seem completely natural in a pop song. But this music doesn’t sound like Brian Wilson. Ed often adopts different character voices for the songs. One moment he’s singing in a sweet falsetto, and in the next he’s growling like Tom Waits. Each song has a distinct vocal identity, almost reminiscent of the way Prince used completely different voices for some of his songs. But this music sounds nothing like Prince. Sometimes I wonder why the Downtown Puff album isn’t better known than it is. It certainly has some devoted fans, but I can’t help thinking more people would like it if they knew about it. For me it’s the work of a visionary musical artist, and it's a collection of songs that contains just the right balance of beauty, mystery, playfulness and outrageously good tunes. It’s also worth mentioning that Edmund Cake released another album under the name Pie Warmer a few years later called The Fearsome Feeling (2009 Lil’Chief Records), which is every bit as great as Downtown Puff. Alan Gregg last year released a superb album under the name Polite Company, entitled "Please Go Wild" - first single "Circulation" is here, we have copies on LP and CD, and his website is here
      • Accepted from Slow Boat Records feed 2022 by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • wilton
      • cats

        • Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Sniffing out seabirds on Mana Island
      • Te Papa vertebrates curator Colin Miskelly recently spent 3 days on Mana Island following a conservation dog searching for well-concealed petrels in the lush vegetation. He kindly agreed to share a ‘blog with a dog’ with us. Miro is a 4-year-old German short-haired pointer cross. He is one of the
      • Accepted from Te Papa blog feed by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • dogs

        • Mana Island, Porirua, Porirua City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • A nose for kiwi
      • While normally any furry mammals are kept well out of the sanctuary, this month we opened the gates for some very special working dogs. These dogs are part of the Conservation Dogs programme which ...
      • Accepted from Zealandia HTTPS by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • dogs

        • Zealandia, Lake Road, Highbury, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • REVIEW: Blunt Dog: Bullet Train to Dunedin
      • In addition to playing an Eyegum Wednesday at San Fran, Blunt Dog spent the weekend recording their upcoming album at the Massey University studio. The album, titled Bullet Train To Dunedin, promises a warm and unpolished sound reminiscent of old home recordings. This album marks a significant departure from their first album, How is a Dog So Honest?. The new tracks, primarily derived from guitarist and vocalist Dom’s demos, are both harder and softer, expanding on the range of their earlier work. The album concept originated from drummer Logan’s whimsical idea of a Japanese bullet train travelling from Britomart station in Auckland to Dunedin, described by the band as “a moment of genius and a passage of jest.”
      • Accepted from Salient 2024 by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • dogs
      • music
      • reviews

        • San Francisco Bath House, Swan Lane, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Meet the creatives behind HINE-TE-RĒHIA
      • Presented by Tuatara Collective, HINE-TE-RĒHIA is a multilingual theatre experience coming to BATS Theatre in July. Devised, created and performed by an all-female BIPOC cast, this exciting show promises to leave you gasping in awe of their talent. I had the chance to interview Jason Te Mete (previous deviser/director), Tāwera Ormsby (co-Kaiwhakahaere of Tuatara Collective) […]
      • Accepted from Wellingtonista Blog Feed by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • theatre
      • tuatara

        • BATS Theatre, 1, Kent Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Love at the Zoo
      • There are those who believe that the penguins at Wellington Zoo are nothing more than a conspiracy theory. How else can you explain visiting the zoo multiple times and never catching a glimpse of them? Or only seeing their tiny feet and bellies peeking out from their cozy nesting boxes? Some question if they're real or just well-made statues. The keepers in charge of the penguin exhibit seem to think these birds exist, but VUWSA's Emily Bull thinks otherwise. However, I am strongly against this notion. In fact, I was so passionate about it that I contacted the zoo specifically to learn more about my beloved (and entirely real) penguin couple: Harriet and Nettle. And through my research, I discovered how they (along with some other adorable animals) fell in love.
      • Accepted from Salient 2024 by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • penguins
      • zoo

        • Wellington Zoological Gardens, Manchester Street, Melrose, Wellington, Wellington Region, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Who let the dogs in?
      • Rapu and Alfie, along with their humans, Sally and Miriam, are part of the Conservation Dogs programme and work hard all around Aotearoa, ensuring offshore islands, cargo, and sanctuaries like ...
      • Accepted from Zealandia HTTPS by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • dogs

        • Zealandia, Lake Road, Highbury, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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