Wilton and Cuba Street
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How Did I Get Hear? #17 - Alan Gregg on Ed Cake's "Downtown Puff"
- Slow Boat Records
- 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:
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- cats
Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Incursion
- Enjoy Contemporary Art Space
- At the end of last year, we said goodbye to our long-standing photographer Shaun Matthews, who volunteered with the gallery for over two years. Shaun is an incredible photographer whose work Incursion is currently on display at Otari Wilton's Bush, the Wellington Botanic Gardens, Mount Victoria and Bush City at Te Papa.
- Accepted from Enjoy blog by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- mount-victoria
- te-papa
- wilton
- botanic-gardens
Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, 211, Left Bank, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Building a road and saving 30 seconds
- Wellington Scoop
- One of the most extraordinary things about plans to bulldoze a road through the pristine Takapu Valley is the claim about how much time will be saved. They’re counting the savings in seconds. The claim is found in an Appendix to the controversial report in which the chief executives of regional councils tell their mayors that they ought to support a road through the valley.
- Accepted from Wellington Scoop features
- Tagged as:
- oriental-bay
- tawa
- khandallah
- makara
- worser-bay
- stokes-valley
- mount-cook
- island-bay
- hataitai
- civic-square
- ngaio
- northland
- roseneath
- newtown
- thorndon
- hutt-valley
- titahi-bay
- paraparaumu
- wadestown
- miramar
- porirua
- johnsonville
- wainuiomata
- lyall-bay
- wilton
- begonia-house
- paremata
- eastbourne
- karori
- mount-victoria
- kelburn
- kilbirnie
- berhampore
- aro-valley
- brooklyn
- wairarapa
- seatoun
- cuba-street
- waterfront
- newlands
- takapu-valley
Kilbirnie, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)
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When the media advocate racism to hide the real culprits behind bad driving
- Jack Yan
- This op–ed in the Fairfax Press smacks of typical yellow peril journalism that has come to typify what passes for some media coverage of late.
- Accepted from Jack Yan posts
- Tagged as:
- roseneath
- titahi-bay
- berhampore
- cuba-street
- wainuiomata
- civic-square
- wairarapa
- karori
- kelburn
- khandallah
- tawa
- stokes-valley
- paraparaumu
- makara
- brooklyn
- hutt-valley
- worser-bay
- hataitai
- ngaio
- lyall-bay
- wadestown
- waterfront
- mount-cook
- paremata
- wilton
- begonia-house
- mount-victoria
- newtown
- aro-valley
- newlands
- kilbirnie
- seatoun
- northland
- thorndon
- island-bay
- miramar
- oriental-bay
- johnsonville
- porirua
- eastbourne
Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Who are the single season points and try scoring record holders?
- Wellington Club Weekly
- Above: Brandyn Laursen (left) and Mike Clamp (right) who we think hold the respective Wellington club rugby single season points and try scoring records.
- Accepted from Rugby Club Weekly Feed
- Tagged as:
- worser-bay
- newlands
- roseneath
- hataitai
- paraparaumu
- newtown
- cuba-street
- khandallah
- aro-valley
- lyall-bay
- stokes-valley
- mount-victoria
- tawa
- seatoun
- eastbourne
- paremata
- island-bay
- berhampore
- ngaio
- kelburn
- miramar
- johnsonville
- waterfront
- karori
- oriental-bay
- titahi-bay
- wairarapa
- mount-cook
- kilbirnie
- civic-square
- northland
- hutt-valley
- brooklyn
- wadestown
- wainuiomata
- makara
- thorndon
- wilton
- porirua
- begonia-house
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt, Lower Hutt City, Wellington, 5019, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Grab some gravel
- Greater Wellington Regional Council
- Take some hard fill for your home and garden projects this weekend - and help protect your community from flooding.
- Accepted from GW Feed
- Tagged as:
- kilbirnie
- roseneath
- stokes-valley
- aro-valley
- wilton
- miramar
- tawa
- worser-bay
- ngaio
- makara
- begonia-house
- waterfront
- island-bay
- thorndon
- hutt-valley
- wainuiomata
- newlands
- mount-victoria
- kelburn
- seatoun
- paraparaumu
- johnsonville
- hataitai
- wairarapa
- lyall-bay
- eastbourne
- paremata
- wadestown
- karori
- oriental-bay
- mount-cook
- civic-square
- porirua
- cuba-street
- brooklyn
- northland
- titahi-bay
- khandallah
- newtown
- berhampore
Island Bay, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)
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Found a Facebook bot? Facebook wants you to leave it as reporting option vanishes
- Jack Yan
- Facebook appears to be giving up on the bot fight.
- Accepted from Jack Yan posts
- Tagged as:
- wilton
- seatoun
- waterfront
- newtown
- hutt-valley
- northland
- kelburn
- begonia-house
- island-bay
- berhampore
- hataitai
- makara
- paraparaumu
- mount-victoria
- oriental-bay
- newlands
- johnsonville
- mount-cook
- wairarapa
- aro-valley
- tawa
- roseneath
- lyall-bay
- porirua
- cuba-street
- worser-bay
- thorndon
- khandallah
- eastbourne
- ngaio
- titahi-bay
- paremata
- civic-square
- wainuiomata
- wadestown
- brooklyn
- stokes-valley
- kilbirnie
- karori
- miramar
Mt. Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Summer Interclub Round 2 Results
- Table Tennis Wellington
- Week 2 results are below: 2015-Summer-Interclub-4-March-results Premier 2015-Summer-Interclub-4-March-results Divisions FYI the draw schedules are here.
- Accepted from Table Tennis Wellington blog posts
- Tagged as:
- lyall-bay
- johnsonville
- island-bay
- stokes-valley
- civic-square
- aro-valley
- wainuiomata
- kilbirnie
- paremata
- paraparaumu
- waterfront
- thorndon
- makara
- wilton
- ngaio
- hataitai
- newtown
- khandallah
- begonia-house
- berhampore
- kelburn
- worser-bay
- miramar
- wadestown
- mount-victoria
- mount-cook
- newlands
- hutt-valley
- tawa
- roseneath
- titahi-bay
- oriental-bay
- seatoun
- brooklyn
- northland
- karori
- wairarapa
- eastbourne
- cuba-street
- porirua
Karori, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Commuting by bicycle in Wellington
- Cycling in Wellington
- In the past few years the number of people I see on bikes riding from Newtown to town in the morning has literally quadrupled. Unfortunately, many of the people I see stopped at the lights are on seriously terrible bikes. I’m see rusty, too-big or too-small mountain bikes with brakes that barely work and people look unconfident and uncomfortable on their bikes. Riding the wrong bike can actually make cycling seriously not fun. Recently several of my colleagues have gotten bicycles with the intention of cycling to work. I have noticed that they too seem to have missed some items that to me are essential for bike commuting. Namely:
- Accepted from Cycling in Wellington posts
- Tagged as:
- waterfront
- hutt-valley
- kilbirnie
- porirua
- hataitai
- karori
- newtown
- cuba-street
- miramar
- khandallah
- titahi-bay
- ngaio
- oriental-bay
- seatoun
- worser-bay
- mount-victoria
- wilton
- mount-cook
- paraparaumu
- roseneath
- wadestown
- paremata
- makara
- island-bay
- berhampore
- stokes-valley
- johnsonville
- eastbourne
- brooklyn
- begonia-house
- wairarapa
- kelburn
- northland
- thorndon
- civic-square
- newlands
- lyall-bay
- wainuiomata
- aro-valley
- tawa
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt, Lower Hutt City, Wellington, 5019, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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