News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Have a browse of the latest music books at the library. Topics include 1970s pub rock, a world without music (a story of Sudden Neursosensory Hearing Loss), the postwar musical life of Hawera, and a book about those retail refuges — record stores. Enjoy!

Just like us : aspects of New Zealand music / Robert Hoskins … [et al.].
“A guide to aspects of New Zealand music for senior high school students, undergraduates, and interested lay people. Written as much as possible in plain language, and illustrated throughout, it introduces selected works and provides follow-up activity material.” (description from fishpond.co.nz)

World music is where we found it / essays by and for Allan Thomas ; edited by Wendy Pond and Paul Wolffram.
“Allan Thomas began lecturing at Victoria University’s School of Music in 1977, and developed across the following three decades a wide range and vision for ethnomusicology there. World Music courses were complemented by tuition in and performance of Indonesian gamelan, using the set of instruments from Cirebon which he had brought to New Zealand in 1974. The twin focus on Asian and Pacific music also broadened into explorations of vernacular music in New Zealand society. Postwar musical life of Hawera township in Taranaki is the subject of Music Is Where You Find It (2004). In this volume, Allan’s distinctive voice and sensibility are sustained through another generation of ethnomusicological studies by students and colleagues who have jumped over the boundary fence to find music in its social context at stock sales, agricultural shows, dance festivals, brass band competitions, Irish pubs, and in communities wherever they have travelled.” (Description from fishpond.co.nz)

Record store days : from vinyl to digital and back again / Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo ; Scott Calamar, editor.
“”Record Store Days” takes a look back at the retail refuges that enthralled at least three generations of music lovers. Includes photographs and reminiscences from musicians, music industry executives, former record store clerks, and, of course, avid fans.” (Syndetics summary)

The train in the night : a story of music and loss / Nick Coleman.
“How do you lose music? Then having lost it, what do you do next? Nick Coleman found out the morning he woke up to a world changed forever by Sudden Neursosensory Hearing Loss. The Train in the Night is an account of one man’s struggle to recover from the loss of his greatest passion in life and to go one step further than that: to restore his ability not only to hear but to think about and feel music. Of all our relationships with art, the one we enjoy with music is the most complex, the most mysterious and, for reasons that cannot be explained by science alone, the most emotionally charged. Nothing about that relationship is simple. And yet it is perhaps through music that we make the most intimate contact with our sense of who we really are, at our most naked, unsophisticated, honest, simplified.” (Syndetics summary)

100 killer riffs & fills for rock guitar : all the hot riffs & fills you need–and how to use them / Phil Capone.
“Phil Capone has distilled all the essential licks and chops into this easy to use collection. Each example is presented within a subgenre: perspective rock, heavy metal, and blues rock, to provide an invaluable historical perspective and ensure that the correct musical context is fully understood. It comes complete with a CD, so you can learn the lick, then play it back yourself over a professional backing track.” (description from Amazon.com)

A howlin’ wind : pub rock and the birth of new wave / John Blaney.A Howlin’ Wind: Pub Rock and the Birth of New Wave
“Take a trip to a lost world. A world permeated by the odour of stale tobacco and overflowing toilets; a world where your feet stick to the carpet and the walls are covered in peeling flock wallpaper. The beer is warm, but the band on stage is hot. Welcome to the world of 1970s pub rock. Author John Blaney traces the history of pub rock from its Mod roots through to its reinvention as new wave. With eye-witness accounts from those involved, including a lengthy interview with Dave Robinson, John Blaney explains perfectly how pub rock started, flourished and reinvented itself as the new wave: ‘A Howlin’ Wind’ that blew away the cobwebs from a moribund music scene.” (description from Amazon.com)