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'Select: Sound & Vision' collection

Select collection sticker Get the latest CDs & DVDs faster! The 'Select' collection is designed to make it easier to borrow heavily used and reserved items within our AV Collection. The items in this collection have a reduced loan period of 3 days, meaning you can access the most popular CDs and DVDs faster for the same price and find them on the shelf more often.

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Recent Picks - July

Anthology, Burzum.
Separating Vark Vikernes the man (very dubious political ideals, convicted murderer and arsonist) from Burzum (his renowned one man black metal project) is sometimes a difficult task. His reputation within the black metal scene, and his representation in the media, often overshadows his work as an artist. 'Anthology' in part remedies that issue. Taken as a body of work it highlights his very raw primal beginnings and follows him through to his later more constructed works. Burzum occupies a crucial role in the second wave black metal scene, drawing his inspiration from the earlier works of Celtic Frost and Venom, but also incorporating Norwegian and European folk tales, and the regular dose of sub-par Tolkien meanderings. Musically, the disc is pretty much perfection; unprocessed, poorly recorded, dirty and utterly intimidating, it represents some of the best heavy metal ever recorded. (Craig)

Have one on me, Joanna Newsom.
I highly recommend the new Joanna Newsom album 'Have One On Me'. Its incredible; spiralling, whimsical notes with amazing catchy melodies in the middle of long meandering songs. Five steps up from her previous album. (Jessica)

Snakes for the divine, High On Fire.
Matt Pike, High on Fire's front-man, is a legendary figure in stoner rock circles for his work with his previous band Sleep, who managed to take doom rock into a whole other monolithic realm with their masterpiece, Dope Throne. After their break-up the rhythm section went on to form the highly acclaimed drone/folk outfit, OM, while Pike went on to form 'High On Fire', who have become renowned in the heavy rock scene for their propulsive and utterly captivating albums. Snakes of the Divine continues the roll he has been on for the last few albums with an intense charging album of classic stoner rock, fuelled from a base of solid metal, and featuring his trademark gritty and weighty guitar tone. If youre looking for something as fluid and reliable as Motorhead, you'll not be disappointed in HOF, this is a near flawless album of solid very-hard rock, full to the brim with enough Conan, Lovecraft and pot references to have you roaring along. (Craig)

Like it like that, Guy Sebastian.
Since winning the very first season of Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian has grown from strength to strength and has pretty much established himself in the music industry as a talented and recognised singer/songwriter/musician in spite of how he got his start. And to his credit this is his 5th album which includes 3 released singles. This album also features on 3 other tracks, John Mayer on guitar and backing vocals. (Ethel)

Megasus, Megasus.
Sometimes you just want things to be nice and simple. Megasus provide that in abundance with uncomplicated bombastic riffs galore. If you want rock, you got it! Made up by members of the same software company that has developed the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series of games, Megasus roar out of the gate, pummel you with 40 minutes of Sabbath and Electric Wizard fuzz and draw things to halt with nary a pause for breath. Wonderfully crushing without a touch of irony, it's marvellous to see a band power along without a care in the world. Who cares about playing to the hip crowd, or worrying about sophistication, theres something inherently primal about all those big fat dirty chords; for those about to rock, we salute you! (Craig)

The concrete twin, Mick Karn.
Using his fretless bass guitar, the amazing musician from Japan Mick Karn shocked music fans in the late 70s, but has not had much luck since Japan was disbanded. After Japan broke up, he first formed Dalis Car with Bauhauss vocalist Peter Murphy, then with former band mates such as David Sylvian and Steve Jansen, improvisation-aimed band Rain Tree Crows. However, both managed to make only one (great) album. In the 90s, he teamed up with the exceptional avant-garde guitarist David Torn. It became the news and made tours but again was short-lived. In the recent years, he has put out his music from his own label without much attention, and now is suffering from cancer and facing financial difficulties. In this latest album, he plays all instruments himself except drums and displays his usual style, belonging to nowhere, refusing to be categorised; an avant-garde art rock world. Although his unconventional, undulating bass sounds and phrases are, as always, strongly present here, it is rather dark which may reflect his current situation, and solitary could be the word to describe this album. I just hope this will not be his last. (Shinji)

Phaedra, Tangerine Dream.
Phaedra is Tangerine Dreams most realized album, it's not necessarily their best album overall (thats a matter of much debate amongst, well... geeks like me mainly), but it certainly represents the pinnacle of their studio electronic powers. An assortment of ambient tracks, progressively lengthy, with swoosh's of primitive loops, keyboards washes and beautiful, haunting synthesizer effects. Massively influential on the contemporary electronic scene, without this there would never have been an acid house explosion or raves for that matter, and forget trance, ambient or anything downtempo. This album (ok, and a few others) pushed electronic music into an entirely new direction, where expansive, searching and progressive sounds were created expressly to aid introspection and reflection. Yeah, sadly this is to blame, in part, for new age music as well. But we'll forgive them because Phaedra sounds as good today as the day it was released (probably, I was three at the time), its a magnificent swirling dreamy opus thats comes highly recommend for anyone who wishes to take pause and simply drift. (Craig)

Jersey Boys : original Broadway cast recording, Bob Gaudio.
The 'Jersey Boys' is the Broadway musical based on the story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. And I can with great delight say I recently saw this show live in Melbourne. Brilliant visually, and even more so vocally, the vocal talent of this cast is outstanding. This CD is the Original Broadway Cast Recording produced by Bob Gaudio who is one of The 'Original' Four Seasons, has been condensed into 53 minutes of a two and a half hour show for your listening pleasure. The story follows how Francis Stephen Castelluccio became Frankie Valli 'with an i' and the formation of the Four Seasons, & took the world by storm in the 60's. Of Italian heritage living in New Jersey, USA, hence the name Jersey Boys they were dropouts and gangsters, apparently the fashion back then, but they loved to sing on street corners, or the front steps of their homes. They shared a dream that music could take them to a better place. And when it did, pop music would never be the same again. The harmonies, the powerful falsetto singing voices, were as natural and as captivating as their story. This 'is' their story, where it all began. Take a walk down memory lane to the tunes of 'Sherry', 'Big girls Dont Cry', 'Walk Like A Man' and 'Rag Doll' to name but a few of their many timeless classics and number one hits. And what better way to complete, not to mention 'compliment' this live show of very talented singers & actors, than to have The 'Original' Four Seasons singing live, the last two songs, absolute bliss! (Ethel)

Dimensional bleedthrough, Krallice.
Mesmerizing black metal (sans the corpse paint). New York's 'Krallice' are on the leading edge of what many like to term 'hipster' metal (that's all the metal minus the cheese, all the fury and none of the facileness). That's probably doing them a disservice though, because the mere fact they are so good, and attracting a crowd from outside the usual black metal circles, shouldnt mean they should be tagged as anything more than the guitar geeks that they really are. Made up from members from New York's elite experimental and metal underground, including folks from, Behold... The Arctopus, they provide a veritable thrill ride of intelligently sinful riffs, with the usual black metal multi-layered tremolo picking overlaid with the kind of putrid vocals it is famous for. It's all very sinister, very clinical and extremely clever. Highly recommended for the kinetically deficient. (Craig)

Siwan, John Balke.
Norwegian pianist, composer Jon Balke is no stranger to the ECM label, but his collaboration with Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui is intriguing. Apparently the parts of Iberia Peninsula in Spain that were ruled by Muslims until the end of the 15th century (forgotten after Christians conquered) was called Al Andalus, and Alaoui has been trying to preserve its music. Balke weaves Alaoui's vocals (lyrics are from poems from the region) with sensitive ensembles that are mixtures of Muslim, North Africa and Baroque music with modern vibrancy. The music is beautifully crafted and all musicians perform marvellously to make this unique project really valuable. The trumpeter John Hassell make a great contribution, and the tunes he appears on somehow give a similar impression to his Fourth World sounds. A beautiful music scroll. (Shinji)

Axe to Fall, Converge.
What hasn't been written about the mighty Converge, a band which virtually invented the genre of metalcore with their mix of hardcore's viciousness, a ferocious DIY spirit and some of the best drop tuned overwrought and messed up riffs in musical history. They've been gigging and recording for two decades now, not that you'd know it, there's an intense aggressiveness about them that belies their age. If you're after insightful, complex, intense hardcore, with a splash of noise attached, then you'd find none better than the leaders of the pack. Converge; frighteningly good. (Craig)

"But what if I don't like it?" Well, it's true one's meat is another's poison, so why not double check with allmusic.com first to see if it sounds like your cup of meat/poison/tea.
Previous staff picks

Librarian's Choice

Recommended by Wellington City Libraries staff members, these CDs are chosen from all genres of our wide collection and are displayed with gold Librarian's Choice stickers on the cover. Watch out for the display of Librarian's Choice CDs and DVDs in the Sound & Vision Centre. A list of the CDs chosen is available here (Word) and from the Central Library Sound & Vision Centre desk.

Recent books

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue. Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

Book jacket A preferred blur : (reflections, inspections, and travel in all directions 2007), Henry Rollins.
"2007 was a very busy year for Henry Rollins. He traveled to Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Pakistan, where he was staying when Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. While traveling, Rollins performed numerous spoken word shows and worked on films, his IFC television show, and Harmony in My Head, his popular weekly radio show. In short, a quintessentially Rollins-ian year: sleepless, nonstop, and highly productive. A Preferred Blur contains stories written in the form of journal entries from Rollins' travels throughout the year. As in his other travel-related books and journals, Rollins - Detail magazine's 1994 Man of the Year - writes not only about his own life and work, but of music, current affairs, and the world around him with humor, insight, and brutal honesty." (Amazon.com)

Book jacket Apathy for the devil : a seventies memoir, Nick Kent.
"UK 408 page book. In his long awaited second book. 16 years after his seminal rock tome The Dark Stuff - Nick Kent produces a brilliant and very personal despatch: his memoir of the 1970s. Along with such writers as Paul Morley, Charles Shaar Murray and Danny Baker, Nick Kent was seen as one of the most important and influential UK music journalists of the 1970s. 'Not just a biography but a thriller; a high-octane chase through a decade's musical history.' --NME.

'Dispensed with a bleak wit and brutal candour ... this is a book for anyone that's ever read a music magazine from cover to cover but still wanted to know more.' --Q." (Amazon.com)

Book jacket Women singer-songwriters in rock : a populist rebellion in the 1990s, Ronald D. Lankford Jr..
"Women Singer-Songwriters in Rock provides an overview of the women's singer-songwriter movement during the 1990s with detailed analyses of the music of Alanis Morissette, PJ Harvey, Courtney Love, Liz Phair, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, and Sheryl Crow. The book focuses on the exploration of women's issues within the music, examining how the music's feminist content was able to filter into the popular culture." (Amazon.co.uk)

book jacket The Pitchfork 500 : our guide to the greatest songs from punk to the present, edited by Scott Plagenhoef and Ryan Schreiber.
"Named the "best site for music criticism on the web" by The New York Times Magazine, Pitchforkmedia.com has become the leading independent resource for music journalism, the place people turn to find out what's happening in new music. Founded in 1995, Pitchfork has developed one of the web's most devoted followings, with more than 1.6 million readers monthly who tune in for daily reviews, news, features, videos, and interviews. In The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present, Pitchfork offers up their take on the 500 best songs of the past three decades. Focusing on indie rock (Arcade Fire, the Shins), hiphop (Public Enemy, Jay-Z), electronic (Daft Punk, Boards of Canada), pop (Madonna, Justin Timberlake), metal (Metallica, Boris), and experimental underground music (Suicide, Boredoms), it features all-new essays and reviews written with the sharp wit and insight for which the site is known. Modernizing the music-guide format, The Pitchfork 500 reflects the way listeners are increasingly processing music -- by song rather than by album. These 500 tracks condense thirty years of essential music into the ultimate chronological playlist, each song advancing the narrative and, by extension, the music itself." (realgroovy.co.nz)

Book jacket Beefheart : through the eyes of Magic, John "Drumbo" French.
"A no-holds barred account of working with Beefheart drawing on new reminiscences and interviews with all the key players from inside and around the Magic Band and the cross pollinated Mothers of Invention (masterminded by Frank Zappa). Among those interviewed are Jerry Handley, Jim Sherwood, Alex Snouffer, Art Tripp, Doug Moon, Mark Boston (Rockette Morton), Roy Estrada and Merrel Fankhauser. In depth, honest and full of remarkable revelations, Through the Eyes of Magic is also littered with startling, previously unreleased photos." (Amazon.com)

Book jacket Ryan Adams and the Cardinals : a view of other windows, photographs by Neal Casal ; introduction by Ryan Adams ; afterword by Phil Lesh Abrams.
"Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows reveals an unprecedented, intimate look at Ryan Adams and his band the Cardinals through the evocative photography of lead guitarist, Neal Casal. An intensely personal collection of 200 photographs, Casal has captured the exhilaration of the stage and studio while sometimes exposing the solitary aspects of the creative process and life on the road. With an introduction by Ryan Adams and an afterword by legendary musician Phil Lesh, this collection will be revered by fans and is the official documentation of the beloved band." (Amazon.co.uk)

Magazine roundup

Sick of reserving the latest copy of Mojo, only to find a seven-page feature on Val Doonican? Tired of trudging up the stairs to get Rolling Stone, only to find that Yanni review cruelly missing once again? Avoid nasty surprises with our music magazine roundup.

Here's what's happening in:

Acoustic Guitar website
Bass Player fulltext
Downbeat fulltext
Froots website
Guitar Player website
Modern Drummer website
Mojo website
New Zealand Musician website
NME website
No Depression website
Q website
Real Groove website
Record Collector website
Remix website (requires Flash)
Rip It Up website
Rolling Stone fulltext
Songlines website
The Source website
Uncut website
Wire website

For more magazine links, visit our online music resources page.

Popular music collection

At Wellington City Libraries we have a ridiculous number of CDs (well, over 20,000) for you to borrow at the altogether reasonable price of $1 each. Whether Matmos or Minogue, Strokes or Stockhausen, RZA or AWB you may very well find just what you were looking for in our collection.
Try these searches for the latest CDs in these categories

stack of CDs

Popular
Hip-Hop
Electronica
Compilations
Jazz
Soundtracks
Experimental
Country
Punk
Metal
Soul/R&B
A full list of music genres is available on our Catalogue Quicksearch page.

Of course we also take care of classical music.

"Music Ad Lib" radio show

"Music Ad Lib", hosted by our own library staff music enthusiasts, airs monthly on Access Radio 783 AM. The show is on a Saturday afternoon from 4.30-5.00pm on Access Radio 783 AM - look here for the tracks from a recent show.