Shines on everyone (Evermore) (LP 1052-1055)

Evermore Dreams (CD, Warner Music, 2004) ***  

Evermore Real Life (CD, Warner Music, 2006) ****  

Evermore Truth Of The World - Welcome To The Show (CD, Warner Music, 2009) *** 

Evermore Follow The Sun (CD, Universal Music, 2012) ****  

Genre: NZ music; pop rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records; JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Light Surrounding You (Real Life)

Gear costume: Running (Real Life), That's The Way (from Follow The Sun)

Active compensatory factors: Evermore shirted around boy band status in NZ for a few years 2004- 2006. The three brothers from Feilding are talented as all get out and they looked good doing it. 

Those first two albums are like Volume 1 and 2 in some regards. By Real Life they had their brand of anthemic pop really firing and the hits came thick and fast for a few years.

They then decided to do a concept album about the news of the world media industry and the seriousness of the subject matter kind of disguised some good songs. Not a success overall in my eyes, as it's hard to sustain interest over a whole concept album unless it's Thick As A Brick.

Fourth album, Follow The Sun, was a return to pop songs but the quality was more mature and hinted at some exciting developments. But at that point they split up. 

That was a real shame as there are many great moments on the album. No hits though - so maybe that was a factor. Plus, NZ is a small town and the lure of assisting others in other sonic adventures was clearly a lure as well.

Where do they all belong? The boys haven't released anything as Evermore since 2012. Instead they've been off doing their own things. I'd love it if they'd reunite at some point and record some more songs. Sure be a pity to waste all that talent.

I'm glad that I have been with you (Zed) #552 - 555

Zed Oh! Daisy/ Leaving Me (Universal, 1998)
Zed Starlight/ Watching The World/ This One/ Starlight (video) (Universal, 2002)
Zed Hard To Find Her/ The Import/ Digital Girl/ Zed in weed (video)/ Hard To Find Her (video) (Universal, 2003)
Zed She Glows/ Going Home/ The Saddest Thing (Universal, 2004)

The much missed Zed were that rare thing in NZ - an intelligent pop band. They wrote great catchy songs, played them superbly and as a rocking live combo, they were very popular with the younger set. And I loved them too!

Only Evermore is in the same NZ league.

Oh! Daisy came from their first album (Silencer). It's good but in hindsight the second album (This Little Empire) would prove to be a KILLER album in comparison.

She Glows is a brilliant pop song, and Hard To Find Her is a simply glorious pop song that Brian Wilson/Mike Love would have been proud to call their own back in the day.

Hidden gems: Leaving Me is a non album B side - catchy too!

Staggeringly, Going Home (brilliant guitar solo!), The Saddest Thing, The Import, Digital Girl, Watching The World/ This One were all studio tracks not included on the parent album!

Not a dud amongst them.

THAT'S how good This Little Empire was!

We've got something (Evermore) #471 - 473

Evermore Slipping Away/ Oil And Water/ Pick Yourself Up/ Tears/ Colours Bursting (Warner Music, 2002)
Evermore Hold On/ My Own Way/ What's inside/ The Same As You/ So Fine (Warner Music, 2003)
Evermore Unbreakable/ Real Life (live)/ It's Too Late (live)/ Running (live) (Warner Music, 2006)

Evermore are a New Zealand band, originally made up of the three Hume brothers from down the road in Feilding (okay - actually about 90 minutes away to be more precise); drummer Dann left in 2012.

When they were a threesome

Their harmonic pop sound and Jon's soaring vocals are easy to like. 

The Oil and Water EP has Slipping Away as its lead off batter. The classic Evermore sound is there from the get go: those vocals, inventive pop arrangements, the Hume brother harmonies, singalong choruses, great musicianship, great production!

Hold on, off the My Own Way EP is a rock song with a sneery almost (almost) punk attitude. Blimmin' great song too!

Unbreakable comes from my favourite Evermore album: Real Life. A purple period (before the overblown Truth Of The World), the band were on fire with insanely catchy songs. Unbreakable itself knows it. A new confidence is evident. The sound is bigger. The song is huge! it's...UN-BREAK-ABBBBBLLLLLEEEEEEEE.

Hidden gems: The title song on Oil and Water is a gem but so are all these tracks! None, btw, including the A side, made the debut album Dreams! The boys move on fast. What is noteworthy are the guitar chops of the insanely talented Jon Hume! Tears and Colours...are, um, bursting with ideas! 

Same deal with the other My Own Way songs - this could side two of the unofficial pre Dreams album! My Own Way itself is a standout though! And then there's So Fine - a brilliant slab of attitude and driving riff rock noise that The Datsuns would love to call their own!

All of the live tracks on the Unbreakable Live EP are gems. Running is such a great song. All this and these CD singles still don't include my favourite all time Evermore song! That would be Light Surrounding You. Now that's entertainment folks!

That's the way it always comes around (Evermore)

My Roctober 22 post focused on being in the mood to buy CDs.

This post is Mood part 2.

As George Costanza says to Jerry Seinfeld (when Jerry won't give details of sleeping with Elaine cos he's not 'in the mood'):

I don't have a job, I have no place to go, you're not in the mood? Well you get in the mood!!

ZZ Top helped get me in the mood: repeated listens to I gotsta get paid sealed the deal after those videos from my Oct 22 post piqued interest.

In the end I bought three of the four CDs mentioned in that post (the only one yet to be purchased is the Diana Krall one).

The verdicts:

La Futura is awesome. The quality hinted at by the single, I gotsta get paid, is maintained throughout. Billy Gibbons sounds like he's channelling Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters at times. He's raw, he's ready, he's a funky gibbon!



There are plenty of early standouts, I've picked second track, Chartreuse, as being representative of the great sound the Three Tops can put out. The sonic quality is huge on the album. I listened to a few tracks on my p-pod from Afterburner (an album I love) before switching to the new one and La Futura is a much, much better sound.

The Datsuns' album is also a welcome relief after their last few outings have failed in inspire me. Dolf's yell, razor sharp guitars, boogie till you puke rifferamas!! What's not to like? It's a triumphant return to their signature sound and, this time out, it's a much meatier sounding sonic attack from the harmonic generators from Cambridge, NZ.



Evermore have returned to a sound that is closer to their second, much loved, album. The brothers from Feilding, NZ, know how to write hook laden pop songs, that's fer sure.

If I have a criticism it is that this is, at times, too much like their sound on album number 2 - Real Life and they are in danger of becoming too formulaic. I loved that album and it sounds churlish to say because pop music by definition is formulaic, but they could do with being a little bit more adventurous. The new one (Follow The Sun) could be Real Life Volume 2.

Hmmmm - maybe I'm being too tough. There are big songs on both albums and it will be on high rotate in the coming months. And it least they didn't do another naff concept album!

That's the way is a song that could, and maybe should, be a pointer to future directions. It's got some variety and drive and pop sensibilities but without the keening Embrace vocals they love so much (and are maybe overdoing).

Forget the past, present tense works and lasts (Pantera)

Jade asked me an interesting question recently. I mentioned that I didn't feel in the mood to buy a CD yesterday when I went to JB Hi-Fi at St Lukes with Keegan.

She asked, "Do you need to be in the mood to buy music?" My initial thought was 'no' but my reaction yesterday was 'yes'.

Normally I can go into a store like JB Hi-Fi and latch onto at least 3 or 4 CDs I really want to buy but not so yesterday for some reason.

I thought about these four new albums but didn't end up with any:

The Datsuns - Death Rattle Boogie



Evermore - Follow The Sun



ZZ Top - La Futura



Diana Krall - Glad Rag Doll
The main problem with the first three is that their last albums were disappointing. The Datsuns have gone away from their first album sound more and more with each album they've released. Evermore put out a clunker last time out which I really didn't like and ZZ Top did the unthinkable with XXX - released a ho hum album.

Diana Krall's Glad Rag Doll is an album I feel obligated to buy for my father's sake. Problem is the album isn't a jazz one and dad wouldn't have liked it much I suspect (who knows - he loved Diana Krall!).

The reviews and youtube videos above have helped me a bit. The Evermore single (also called Follow The Sun) starts out okay but is not their usual hook laden pop confection. The Datsuns have a tad more energy this time out and seem to have returned to things that made The Datsuns special in the first place. The ZZs are in awesome form with Billy's dirty as guitar sound well to the foreground and the video is brilliant as well. Less is more!

So - next time on the mainland I may have to get in the mood and pick up the Datsuns and ZZ Top albums!

Headband grooving our special today

29 Headband, ‘The Laws Must Change’; 30 Evermore, 'Light Surrounding me'

New Zealand music of the early seventies was a peculiar beast. In the 1960’s the aftermath of the English invasion meant New Zealand homegrown talent modelled themselves on English equivalents to compete and satisfy the local needs. As we are so far away from the rest of the universe this was vital when English bands weren’t touring. No Tommy Steele? Hello Ray Woolf. Quincy Conserve was our Blood Sweat and Tears, Mr Lee Grant was our P.J. Proby and Dinah Lee was our Sandy Shaw (one of my very first musical memories is her single Do The Blue Beat) and so on.

As the 1960s became the 70s, New Zealand bands became rockier, hairer, grungier and more and while they started to develop a local New Zealand flavour they were still in thrall to overseas influence. Space Waltz play their dues to Bowie and glam, John Hanlon was our Cat Stevens and so on.

One of the first albums that I fell in love with was Headband’s first album. I must confess though, that without the recommendation from the touring Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in 1971, I would not have found Headband so quickly. So as well as Led Zeppelin III, I bought Headband’s Happen Out album from a record shop in Onehunga.

I had no idea, at the time, that Tommy Adderley had already had a career as a singer or that Jimmy Hill (the drummer) and Billy Kristian (guitars) had been in Ray Columbus and The Invaders in the 1960s. The music is unbelievable as each of the musicians is playing at the top of their game, especially on The Laws Must Change - a John Mayall song (Headband were originally called The Bluesbreakers!). My father used this track to test his hi-fi equipment. He'd crank up the volume to 11 and the distorted guitars by Kristian really rocked.

It's one of those rare tracks that still sounds fresh in 2009. Most of the stuff I love from this period lives in the memory more than the now.

Speaking of 2009 - for me, Evermore carry the torch for New Zealand music at the moment. Zed looked like a bright prospect but then they fell apart after their second album. The early promise of the Datsuns has diminished over their last three albums but Evermore continue to innovate. Now into their third album they will go a long way before they better Light Surrounding Me from album number 2. When I heard it during the Olympics (TV One used it as part of a station promo) I was immediately hooked. I'm looking forward to what they do next.