Hambone is up on the decks this week, with a tasty selection of tunes that inspire his tattoo flash inspired creations. We love the punky energy that buzzes in Hambone’s work; twisted, snarling, funny and loud, and while some of the songs here might fit a similar description, there are also eclectic choices that might surprise. From the Aotearoa heaviness of Beastwars and sludginess of Head Like A Hole, to the iconic electro energy of The Prodigy, hip hop cuts with Ice Cube and Yelawolf and even Haddaway’s iconic What Is Love?… Dive into the Bone Man’s diverse choices and draw some skulls, it’s only fitting….
Welcome back to TUNE! our ever-expanding playlist of the music and culture that inspires our favourite artists. This edition we find out what Ōtautahi artist Dark Ballad has on his musical radar – after all, is there a more apt artistic moniker than his? With his penchant for darker imagery, it might not be surprising to see a healthy dose of metal and heavy rock, but there are also some hip hop entries and a certain British icon, showing a bit of variety! As the artist explains: “These are all songs I frequently listen to whether I’m drawing in a black book with a few beers, in the studio printing woodblocks, or driving around looking for spots…” – so let’s dive in to the soundtrack of Dark Ballad…
Bone Thugs n Harmony – Mo’ Murda
My favorite song of all time. My cousin introduced me to Bone Thugs at an early age and I immediately fell in love with the intoxicating mix of hardcore gangsta rap delivered with the smoothness of R’n’B. Mo’ Murda has all four members killing it over a beat that’s a sample of the classic I’d Rather Be With You by Bootsy Collins, another of my faves.
The White Stripes – Red Rain (Live)
In my opinion, the White Stripes are the rawest and most effective live band of all time. The difference between them live and on record is night and day. They’re great on record, but live is a whole different beast. The visceral and distorted slide blues of Jack with the simple yet thunderous cacophony of Meg’s drums can only be done justice on live recordings and “Red Rain” is the prime example of this.
Rainbow – Stargazer
The best song with the best rock vocalist of all time, Ronnie James Dio. A true progressive symphony. One of the sickest intros of any classic rock/metal songs of all time too. Just epic in every sense.
Led Zeppelin – When the Levee Breaks
I love blues and I really love when great rock bands cover old blues and gospel songs (Nirvana with Where Did You Sleep Last Night and the White Stripes’ Death Letter) and this is the prime example of this.
Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff
Once a Limp Bizkit fan, always a Limp Bizkit fan (unless you grew up and your music taste evolved, which mine didn’t). I was around 12, with spiky hair, frosted tips, a wallet chain, and dressed head to toe in Dickies, and at the time counter culture things like Eminem, South Park and Limp Bizkit became huge and I loved them all. An absolute breath of fresh air compared to what came before them in the 90s. My love for them and this song in particular was reignited after seeing the havoc it incited at Woodstock ’99.
Creed – One Last Breath
What started as a meme between PK, Klaudia (Bartos) and myself quickly turned into us finding ourselves playing this band every chance we got. Similar to Limp Bizkit, Creed was one of my faves in the early 2000s and this song in particular always hits that nostalgic nerve, as well as being a new favorite for us as a group!
Jimi Hendrix –Bold as Love
A beautiful song. Mind-blowing guitar and melody from the GOAT. As a weekend warrior guitar player, Jimi is pretty much all I try to learn these days. Everything you learn while trying to master a Hendrix song can be applied to any other song afterwards. Chord embellishments, phrasing, chord structure… This song in particular is a favorite go-to of mine in the throes of a party.
Metallica – Orion
It was incredibly difficult to pick just one Metallica song. I love so many on their first four albums equally, but I picked Orion because it invokes the most memories. From the cosmic opening to the relentless marching rhythm of the verses to the melodic and serene interlude, this instrumental from Metallica has fuelled many journeys in cars packed with too many people on licenses with too little qualifications.
Isis (The Band) – False Light
Isis (named well before the terrorist group came to popular consciousness) produce the most beautiful metal of all time. Similar to the reasons I picked Orion, False Light is seared into my memories of good times with best friends. Isis’ music sounds like what a camera panning slowly over a recently apocalyptic wasteland looks like. Slow, methodical and somehow beautiful yet brutal and hopeless. Bittersweet, just like the memories attached to it.
Bizzy Bone – Roses
Bizzy Bone was always my favourite member of Bone Thugs. From his rapid fire delivery to his melodic chanting on tracks, I always waited eagerly for his verses more than the others. In recent years, Bone has failed to find any traction in the new landscape of rap filled with minimalist lyricism and trap beats so far removed from 90s G-funk and gangsta rap that it may as well be a whole different genre. With Roses though, Bizzy has managed to find his way in with a vengeance. He is able to use his versatile style to not only fit in on a great trap beat but absolutely destroy it with blistering aplomb. I’ve always loved the dark, brooding simplicity of well-produced trap beats but have never been able to jive with the rappers rapping on them. Bizzy changed that for me when married the best bits of old and new on Roses.
Rod Stewart – I Was Only Joking
Rod Stewart was my Mum’s favourite singer growing up and naturally, that love was passed onto me. It’s always funny when we are drawing with friends and having a drink when the shuffled playlist goes from something like 2pac or Korn to a sad ballad from Rod Stewart, but once its started, we often let Rod play for the rest of the night. His storytelling, soul, musicality and sheer number of great songs land him on this list. I picked I Was Only Joking, but it could have been any number of his other great songs.
One of the best things about the TUNE! project is seeing the diverse range of influences different artists reveal. The spectrum of musical collections is a great reminder that nothing is monolithic. It is easy to assume graffiti writers and street artists are all simple stereotypes (hooded vandals or hipster artists), the reality is, of course, not so monochromatic. For this edition of TUNE!, we talk to enigmatic local graffiti writer, photographer and urban explorer PK, who drops an eclectic mix of tunes, from Grace Jones and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to Dam Native and The Birthday Party, a perfect example of spiraling influences…
PK: Music is my second biggest obsession (the first isn’t hard to guess!). I think music is definitely the cooler of the two. I don’t often listen to stuff while I’m painting or going about my day now, but I have fun memories of boosting around on all night missions as a teenager listening to my punk cassettes and BBC One In The Jungle mixes. I wanted this list to have a bit of everything I enjoy but it got to like 50 songs so I cut it down to a lucky 13 that I think represents most of what I’ve been listening to recently…
Burning Witch – Stillborn
Lydia Lunch – Friday Afternoon
Joanne Robertson – Hi Watt
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – E to G
Flipper – Shed No Tears
Townes Van Zandt – White Freight Liner Blues
Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence – Grey/Afro
Scraps – Baby Baby
Grace Jones – Me! I Disconnect From You
Strawberry Switchblade – Trees and Flowers
The Birthday Party – Sonny’s Burning
Dam Native – Battle Styles
Marilao – F*@k Me Moon [Morph]
TUNE! is an ever-growing playlist of the music that inspires our favourite creatives – stay tuned for our next edition!
The next entry in our ever-growing playlist of music that inspires our favourite creatives comes from graffiti artist Peaz. With a mix of hip-hop, low-fi, pysch and blues, these cuts are a perfect blend and reflection of the artist’s tastes and a world view that is about the present and the importance of expression and experiences…
Peaz: I love all kinds of music, especially depending on which part of my life journey is being experienced. Everything from early psychedelic rock to the newer styles, doom, hip hop, blues, jazz and metal. Much like graffiti, I especially value artists with a message, who have a story to tell. There is a lot to be said for music and art that makes us look a little deeper and think a little differently. Most of the artists listed here constantly remind me of what’s really important in life and existing, much like being active as a writer. It’s about looking at the bigger picture and being here, now; living in every moment and expressing oneself as authentically as possible. It’s almost impossible to sweat the small stuff when creating and experiencing, so I suppose that’s what makes music more meaningful to me.
Tattoo artist, painter of gory monsters and creatures, maker of miniatures and custom toys, illustrator, Smeagol describes himself as having his “fingers in all the pies”. This wide ranging creativity makes it understandable that his taste in music would be equally diverse. After sending a killer playlist of 10 tracks that span the alt 90s vibes of Jane’s Addiction, the verbose wordplay of Aesop Rock, the energy of Misfits, the grooves of Modjo and even the croon of Chris Isaak, he explained 30 might have allowed him to fully cover his eclectic tastes. Oh well, it looks like we will just have to have more volumes of Tune! with Smeagol in the future…
____________________________________________
Ironically asking a near deaf artist their favourite songs is probably a bad idea, but my art and lifestyle revolves heavily on music. From birth my parents enforced a good taste in music so to say, 70s staples like Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, and on and on…
My childhood was straight 80s and 90s baddassery. Grunge and alternative was life: Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Garbage… In between then and now, I’ve picked up on every genre in between and I literally listen to anything, hip hop mainly, but rock, metal, dance, DnB, soul, 90s trash, punk… Gimme something I haven’t heard please! Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.
Jane’s Addiction – Jane Says
Queens of the Stone Age – Burn the Witch
Aesop Rock – No Regrets
King Geedorah – Take Me To Your Leader
KMD – Sweet Premium Wine
Misfits – Hybrid Moments
Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight)
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game
Ramirez – The Fo Five
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib – Giannis (feat. Anderson .Paak)
Follow Smeagol on Instagram to see all of his creative goodness!
The latest contributor to our ever expanding playlist Tune! is our pal Daken – our favourite graffiti, comics and bootleg toy enthusiast. When he provided us with his selection of five songs that inspire him as an artist, he admitted it was not an easy task, pointing to evidence of a scrawled page of ‘almost’ cuts that didn’t quite make his final list. Daken’s selection is influenced by his creative endeavours and, importantly, his role as a father, music serving as a bridge between his youth and his children. With a mix of hip-hop, Emo and the genre mixing Gorillaz, it is a road trip through a few eras, which is, to borrow a phrase, “for the children”…
____________________________________________
Music is the closest thing I will get to time travel in my lifetime. Not to say I don’t listen to contemporary artists, I listen to a wide range of stuff. But two years ago a couple things happened. I became a father and I found a new art medium: bootleg art toys. Being a father lends itself to reflecting on one’s own childhood experiences. Trying to work out what makes you, you. Working in this new medium that invites play, wonder and nostalgia, my listening habits seem to be a higher percentage of things I listened to as a kid. Certain albums, artists, songs or even lyrics acting as doorways to memories I can pull on, to pass onto not only my art but to my children too. I hope you like these memories I put together for y’all. Stay dope, peace homies.
Jessie Rawcliffe is our next contributor to Tune! our ever-growing playlist of the music that inspires our favourite creatives. Jessie has built a reputation for her stunning works, often portrait-based, and constructed with intricate, painstaking detail. Her painting of Pōneke based tattooist and artist Richard Warnock is a finalist in The 2022 Adam Portraiture Award, a biennial competition and exhibition held at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington. The Adam Portraiture Award is considered Aotearoa’s most prestigious painted portrait award. The first time she has been selected for the exhibition, Jessie’s painting is one of 45 works on public display from 26 May to 14 August.
____________________________________________
Music has been an ever present part of my life – it’s affected the people and aesthetics I’ve been exposed to and has been a way of connecting with others. It’s fair to say that it’s influenced what and how I make.
There’s plenty of music I love that won’t get played while I paint. I’m looking to get into a dissociative state. Having to change album is a massive buzz kill and I’m haunted by that stupid sound my UE Boom makes when it turns itself off.
As problematic as Spotify is, I heavily rely on autoplay from the first thing I pick to give me a few hours of agreeable background noise. I’m only partially listening.
Each of these artists lead in a direction I like going.
MF DOOM – A.T.H.F (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
Minor Threat – Betray
Idles – Colossus
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)
[Video contains mature content]
Night Lunch – Haunted Mill
____________________________________________
Follow Jessie on Instagram and check out our expanding playlist in our other editions of Tune! right here on our blog…
In preparation for his upcoming exhibition Even in Darkness (opening at Fiksate on April 1st, 2022), I was lucky enough to sit down with Jacob Yikes and chew the fat over not just the new work he was getting ready to present, but a range of topics. Music was inevitably on the table, and it has long been known how central music is to Yikes’ creative practice (from song titles used for shows and works, to his choice of accompanying soundtracks for exhibitions), serving as a constant companion to his work.
When I asked him to put together a playlist for Tune! he jumped at the chance and sent me a list of a dozen songs within a day. Then he sent me a new list the following day. It was clear how much of a role music plays in his process and life. The music is, much like his art, evocative and transcendental, smooth and yet dark. From Miles Davis to Mara TK and a choice cut of independent hip hop and jazzy down beats, this is a truly killer playlist that needs no lengthy introduction…
____________________________________________
Mara TK –Highly Medicated
Blockhead – Give Them Their Flowers
Khruangbin X Knxwledge – Dearest Alfred (My Joy)
Blu – amnesia
Skyzoo – Free Jewelry
Med, Blu, Madlib, feat. Anderson Paak – The Strip
Ivan Ave –Phone Won’t Charge
eLZhi, feat. Royce da 5’9 – Motown 25
Oh No- Elegant Smoke
@peace –Fine Night
The Doppelgängaz –Boston Beard
Miles Davis – Blue in Green
Even in Darkness, a selection of paintings by Jacob Yikes will run from April 1 to April 30 at Fiksate Gallery, 54 Hawdon Street, Sydenham
Next up on Tune!, our ever-expanding playlist of the music that inspires our creative friends, is Dr Suits. If Dr Suits is painting in his studio space at Fiksate, chances are there is a classic Reggae, Ska, Dub or Rocksteady vinyl playing. With an impressive collection of vintage and re-released vinyl (trips to Ride On Super Sound are a common occurrence), the music is a strong influence on his creative process, setting the mood for for his work and manifesting in various ways. For Tune! Dr Suits takes us on a trip through these vital and influential genres…
____________________________________________
Music is a fairly important part of my creative process. I use music to help me get in a calm and consistent frame of mind. To do this, I like to play vinyl, predominantly Dub, Rocksteady, Ska and Reggae. The older the better. What I like about this music is its experimental and honest imperfections you can hear in the music. The artists are more about exploring a concept rather than trying to perfect a composition. Plus I generally love any old Jamaican music!
Playing vinyl means I’m engaged in the act of listening, its much more tactile. I like the physicality of flicking through the crate and experiencing the artwork, opening the cover, admiring the details on the insides and the sleeves. Each record will have 4-6 tracks on one side, this means every 20-30 mins of listening, in no time, I’m back there exploring the music again. So, although I like the tunes, I also love the vintage graphics, photography and bizarre outfits of early avant-garde experimentalists of Jamaica.
It’s hard to pick 5 albums, so I’m going to aim to cover the genres listed above…
Jackie Mittoo – The Keyboard King
The Skatalites – African Roots
Lee Scratch Perry – Cloak and Dagger
Studio one – Rocksteady Got Soul
Trojan Records – Rudeboy Rumble
Tune! is an ever-growing playlist of music that inspires our artist friends!
The latest contributor to our expanding creative playlist is Josh Bradshaw. Josh’s list is a reflection of his evolution over the last two years, where his shift from a certain artistic persona and style represents his desire to make work more honest and true to himself. His latest body of work is defined with an anarchic quality that investigates materials and methods of acquisition and draws a fine line between urban decay and beauty. In that regard, his selections for Tune! are raw and aggressive – classic punk and hardcore, from Minor Threat to Descendents, reminders to not pander to a market, but to disrupt and keep pushing…
____________________________________________
For the last few years I’ve found myself witnessing an uprising of particularly flimsy shit being made for the sake of nothing except maybe looking ‘trendy’ or ‘urban’ for all the Merivale Mum’s who might happen to flick past your sweet new artist profile double page spread in NZ House & Garden Magazine. I can’t sit here and claim I’ve never been a part of the problem however, I’ve made more than my fair share of sellable crap for the masses. Nowadays when I’m producing new work, I have to listen to music that is going to keep me honest and not settle for making mediocre shit for no reason. I have to listen to music made by more important people that actually have something to say from a more important time than myself and the lame filtered positivity Instagram era that we are all currently living in. Here’s a few favourite albums and discographies I listen to whilst working because who the fuck has time to curate a playlist or change a song every 2 minutes. Keep it aggressive not flimsy.
Dead Kennedys – Kill The Poor
Minor Threat
Bad Brains – Bad Brains
Descendents – Milo Goes to College
Tune! is an ever-growing playlist of music that inspires our artist friends!
