The Dusty Sunday Session on Music

Words by Tom Watson (he/him), Normaan Mohammed (he/him), and Levi Gibbs (he/him)

I’ve just sat down to write an article about NZ Music Month and my mind casts back to the great days of Kiwi Classics (unlike the podcast episode we did on NOW albums a while ago). The Exponents, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Crowded House, and who could forget, the Chaplin of the Church, Sir Dave Dobbyn. Now, I’m not gonna mess about here. NZ Music has taken a little bit of a downward step in the last ten years. Gone are the days where Stan Walker was all we had (unless you watched X-Factor and found out there were these other people—looking at you here, Ruby Frost). Now we have Six60 and Drax Project who seemingly break their backs carrying kiwi pop, L.A.B and Benee who hold the crowns of bands only played in summer, and that little ginger bloke with two first names. At The Dusty Sunday Session (TDSS), we love them all but require something more. 

Nestled deep in the crevices of Wellington’s streets is another band who carry the same name as a band of four old white Londoners who perform Acid Jazz (which I can only assume is what happens when a hippy  has unprotected sex with Barry B Benson from The Bee Movie). Corduroy are the not-so-newest band rocking in Wellington. They’ve performed at Rhythm & Vines more times than I’ve had sex, and they have been blowing away their competition for some time now. Now, we may be a little biassed as a member of their band appeared in an episode of TDSS a while back, but we only have quality guests with quality stories on our show, so you know they are going to be good. Songs like “I’m So Bored,” “Good Intentions,” and “Spaceships” are good enough to be played at any party. “The Usual,” “Fire,” and “Never Enough” hit so hard on a cold and stormy day that I’m pretty sure Sonny Bill Williams is jealous. And when it comes to making a sad boi playlist, “Childish Dreams” never fails to bring me to tears. Check out Corduroy on Spotify.

Also, just a shout out to John Clarke here. For those uneducated, John Clarke  was a comedic performer with the voice of an angel who wrote and sang my favourite kiwi song of all time (closely followed by “Childish Dreams”), “We Don’t Know How Lucky We Are.” It’s a catchy tune with important lyrics we can all take heed of and Marc Ellis on the drums, which is not something I asked for but is also not something I am complaining about. The song is essentially Fred Dagg talking about how he thinks he has it bad sometimes until he sees people who are worse off than him (including a man who had a coronary, a haemorrhage in his ear, has declared bankruptcy, and had his wife leave him) who are nothing but happy to be living in Aotearoa. John would be Tom’s dream guest to have on our show (if he was alive, that is). If anything comes out of NZ Music Month, let it be the realisation that we truly live in a beautiful country.