Nourished By Time Shares New Single 'BABY BABY'
Excitement for The Passionate Ones is palpable. The debut single, ' Max Potential,' has already been named 'Best Track of the Year' by NPR, Paste Magazine, Time and Gorilla vs Bear. Meanwhile, the project's second single ' 9 2 5,' earned Best New Music from Pitchfork, and The Quietus declared, 'The Passionate Ones… is set to be one of the defining albums of 2025.'
Crafted between Baltimore, London, and NYC, The Passionate Ones is a sermon, a twelve-track catharsis, a blueprint for building your own altar in the ruins of the American Dream. Available for pre-order now as a LP (black and crystal clear), CD, and to pre-save on all digital platforms. Out August 22, 2025 worldwide.
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NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
How to see Neil Finn, Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, The Beths live in concert for free
Neil Finn: 'I really hope we can all put something good into the world to lift people's spirits.' Photo / Supplied Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. How to see Neil Finn, Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, The Beths live in concert for free Neil Finn: 'I really hope we can all put something good into the world to lift people's spirits.' Photo / Supplied What would be a dream local music summer outdoor festival line-up is taking up residence indoors for a winter series of 10 free, live-streamed performances from Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios. It's an extension of the 'Infinity Sessions' of live shows that Finn has established on a semi-regular basis from his Auckland facility. It's all designed by him as a midwinter pick-me-up with the season he's dubbed 'MUFGAL' for 'make us feel good about life'. 'That's what musicians should be doing,' Finn tells the Listener. 'Deep down, I really hope we can all put something good into the world to lift people's spirits in these uneasy and conflicted times wherever they are and bring a little comfort and inspiration.' During two five-night runs starting on August 13, there will be performances from Finn himself, The Beths, Dave Dobbyn, Don McGlashan, Tami Neilson, Bic Runga, Tom Scott, Troy Kingi, Tiny Ruins and LEAO. Getting all those artists lined up was surprisingly easy, Finn says. 'Everyone got the idea straight away and it was a uniformly positive response. I think artists know we're getting good at this live-streaming thing. They know we will present them in the best possible light.' Each show will be in front of a limited live audience, and streamed via YouTube and elsewhere. Finn will guest with some of his guests – Neilson's new album Neon Cowgirl's title track is a co-write and duet with Finn. 'I will look forward to singing with Tami and perhaps a bit of accompaniment for a few others.' As far as the content of his own solo set goes – the greatest hits? B-side obscurities? 'I don't know yet, but I'll give it proper attention and preparation.' Among the guests, it's a rare appearance by Bic Runga; it's likely to be the only Beths gig here for the rest of the year as they head to Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US after the release later this month of their fourth album; McGlashan is playing between a documentary about him debuting at the NZ International Film Festival and a show with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra on August 16. As someone hosting a live-music-in-the-studio television show and sometimes accompanying guests on piano, is Neil Finn becoming the New Zealand answer to Jools Holland of the BBC series Later … with Jools Holland, on which he has appeared? 'Not really like Jools Holland, but he has made something real and ambitious that I do admire. Infinity Sessions have their own distinct ethos and will evolve to be a unique presence.' • The line-up: Don McGlashan Aug 13; Neil Finn Aug 14; The Beths Aug 15; Tom Scott Aug 16; LEAO Aug 17; Tami Neilson Aug 20; Dave Dobbyn Aug 21; Bic Runga Aug 22; Tiny Ruins Aug 23; Troy Kingi Aug 24. • To watch online, search for the Infinity Sessions channel on YouTube or Instagram Live. Each performance will begin at about 7.30pm.
The Spinoff
a day ago
- The Spinoff
‘Even when I hate it, I love it': Rachael Craw and Hannah Marshall in conversation
Writers Rachael Craw (The Lost Saint) and Hannah Marshall (It's a Bit More Complicated Than That) discuss AI, teaching teenagers, and snobbery around writing for children and young adults. Rachael Craw: Hi Hannah, I get a little thrill when I go into the bookstore and see your lovely bright yellow cover with my blurb at the top. It makes me feel fancy! How does it feel seeing your name on a book cover for the first time? Hannah Marshall: It's a bit strange seeing my name in print. I feel like I'm harbouring some kind of secret when I'm in a bookstore full of people and my book is right there and nobody knows it's mine. You, on the other hand, are a veteran writer, with five books now to your name. Do you find that writing novels gets easier over time? RC: Oooh, yes, it is such a funny, secret feeling! No, it hasn't gotten easier for me at all. HA! Soz. I always find writing hard. I love it. Even when I hate it, I love it – but I almost never find it easy. I don't think I have a very orderly brain. I do love seeing my book on a shelf though! Did you always know you would write a young adult (YA) novel? HM: I can hard relate to the love-hate aspect of writing. It's so frustrating, and most of my writing process is scribbling down problems on a whiteboard, staring out my window in dismay, and stress-watching YouTube shorts when the story feels too impossible to fix. And yet it's my favourite thing to do in the world. It makes no sense. I didn't necessarily intend to write for the YA market, but it naturally slot in there since I was a teenager myself when I wrote the book – the characters were teenagers going through the same teenage problems and joys and dilemmas that I was. It's a little bit disheartening seeing how much harder it is to get YA taken seriously. Do you feel like writing YA is a losing battle? YA is a harder sell, and I've definitely noticed just how much less coverage YA books and authors get over those who write for adults. There are also some pretty patronising views about those writing for younger audiences held by some big names in the NZ literary world (anyone who's read the Surrey Hotel writers residency pitch will know what I mean). What motivates you to keep writing YA when the environment can feel so discouraging? RC: (Cue manic cackling) Indeed. Literary snobbery is alive and well. People are well entitled to like what they like but the snide can get in the bin. Firstly, massive respect and admiration for you, writing a whole bloody novel as a teenager! I do think YA and children's books are given little credit by the fancy higher ups but I really can't be arsed giving that sort of nonsense attitude the time of day. I love writing for teens. It's joyous. Even writing hard, difficult things! But I don't know that I am always thinking about writing for teens – I just go with the voice that presents itself in the world of the story. My current WIP is an adult horror. For The Lost Saint, I knew I wanted to take a heartbroken character on an adventure and I just drew on my first devastating heartbreak (I was tragically dumped) to inspire the voice. Your Zelle goes through a dumping! Did you find it hard to write her experience with disappointing romance? HM: It was a little bit hard. I think the worst part of being dumped is that it almost feels like a loss of your dignity – you feel safe and secure and happy and then suddenly someone just takes that from you. It's brutal, especially when you're young and experiencing that pain for the first time. Heartbreak can really shatter your confidence. I felt really bad putting Zelle through that! I guess as Hemingway (supposedly) said, writing is just letting yourself bleed. I do find it a bit jarring, though, when people ask me about the aspects of my own life that have informed my writing, especially with the trickier issues in the novel like alcohol abuse. How do you maintain that boundary between the personal and the fictional? RC: I think it's a gift you give to others, sharing that pain because it gives people permission to be vulnerable. However, for yourself as a public author, you don't owe people anything you don't want to share. Keeping healthy boundaries is very important. It can be handy to pre-prepare some diplomatic responses to inevitable inquiries. I think writing can be a lot like method acting. You're trying to reach authentic emotion and truth in the words and actions of your characters. It can feel mighty raw sometimes. In It's a Bit More Complicated Than That, Zelle's friendship with Callum is the heartbeat of the story. I really appreciated the way you explored a complex platonic relationship. My dear sister-in-law invokes the saying: 'Friends for a reason, friends for a season, friends for life.' Which I always loved! It's like giving yourself permission to move on, or let certain relationships go because your worlds no longer intersect. But then there are people who you can always come back to because the bonds are deep and essential. Is that the nature of Zelle's friendship with Callum? Friends for life? HM: I hope so! I think their friendship is super layered because it's not just that they get along and have fun together, but they also have a lot of shared pain, and they have to help each other. I think going through such major challenges with a friend bonds you for life, even if you do eventually lose contact, because those experiences are extremely formative. I partly wrote the novel to resist that kind of toxic positivity mindset that had such a huge hold on popular culture while I was at uni: the idea that you shouldn't maintain connection with someone who 'doesn't serve your needs' or whatever. I feel like that mindset basically encourages giving up on a friendship when the going gets tough or you're forced to step up a bit. I think that's so harmful. I know some people will probably think Callum should cut Zelle loose because she's so messy – but their love for each other runs deeper than that. RC: Something I thought about a lot while reading your novel was the power of forgiveness. I noted often amongst my students how sad it was when they would bust up over an offence and then cut their 'bestie' out of their lives, and treat them like a stranger because forgiveness was seen as weakness. I would sometimes have conversations with students navigating friendship implosions and say – this person has been your closest confidante for this many years and that's it? One strike and they're out?! Okay, I'm missing complexities and I'm not talking about putting up with being repeatedly used/abused but being willing to forgive and move forward can actually deepen a friendship. For Callum and Zelle there's a whole lot of forgiveness needed all over! Zelle has to learn to forgive herself, right? In The Lost Saint, Ana's hurt, humiliation and resentment towards her ex is buried deep behind a brittle facade of indifference – but it's all just self protection. How would you describe Callum or Zelle's masks? HM: I wanted to show two people harbouring the same hurt but hiding behind it in very different ways – Callum is very internal and tends to shut down, whilst Zelle is very much the opposite, impulsive and destructive. They need to forgive not only each other but also themselves. Self-forgiveness is probably one of the hardest things you ever have to do; confronting your mistakes and shame and guilt whilst also letting yourself believe you deserve self-love. I still struggle with that. We both work in high school education, so we both know our audiences very well. I don't know how I feel about all the moral panic that kids these days are getting 'dumber' and losing their ability to focus, especially when it comes to reading. What are your reckons about the state of the modern teenage psyche? RC: Hmmm, I sometimes feel very glum about it. I am reaching the Crone end of the spectrum. When I started teaching in the late 90s I could generally expect my junior classes could read a novel by themselves and write, with guidance and scaffolding, for themselves. There might be some cases where kids needed extra support with different learning needs or disabilities. Now, I have to read the whole novel to the class – which I don't mind because I love reading aloud and I'm really good at it and should be a voice actor for sure. HA! I only have a handful of students who read ahead and finish it themselves. And for many of them – hearing that novel will be the only book they read all year. It makes me really sad. Then there's the joy of marking 30 essays and having to check them for AI use which takes ages and of course you can't really be sure and it's so so depressing how much is simply generated by bots. Like crushingly depressing. Oh no, I'm going to get on my soapbox now. But the thing that makes me so, so sad is how easily we abandon process for the sake of speed and 'efficiency'. We are losing something so integral to our humanity. It's the ultimate capitalist scheme to make us consumers. The first thing to suffer is the arts. We are eating our own faces and the bots keep us quiet and compliant and we give away our spark and let the Zuckerbergs and Musks pillage it all, grind it up and sell us a facsimile of 'spark'. HM: I can't even talk about AI to my students because it makes me SO ANGRY and I cannot have a rational discussion about it. I am naively hopeful that in a world increasingly saturated by AI, human-made art will increase in value. Like, I watched this influencer go crazy about a tiny business in Italy that's been making leather sandals by hand for hundreds of years. I think people will always appreciate a book written by a person who slogged through years of research, drafts and edits more than some slop regurgitated in five seconds by ChatGPT. RC: Gosh, I hope you're right. I worry that 'real' art will become more and more separated from the people. Like only the rich will be able to afford it and the common folk are left with the mass-produced dross – like an extreme version of what is already happening. HM: This has turned very existential very quickly. RC: That's because we are very deep and erudite YA authors. HM: That's so true. People who don't take YA seriously have clearly not read this interview. RC: This will change everything. The literati will come running. *sits back and waits for invitations to literary soirees* The Lost Saint by Rachael Craw ($30, Allen & Unwin) and It's a Bit More Complicated Than That by Hannah Marshall ($25, Allen & Unwin) are both available to purchase at Unity Books. Rachael Craw will appear at WORD Christchurch in an event called 'The Romance of Fantasy' on August 31.
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Phone, lip gloss, condiments, cabbages: The claw grip takes hold
Some social media users have gone as far as displaying their hand-held necessities in disposable coffee trays. Others say that men could never successfully pull off this Jenga act; nor would they understand it. And these videos or photos of women clinging to their belongings are not polished; they are presented as the most mundane of girl experiences – the equivalent of posting your unaesthetic breakfast. They are also hilarious. 'I have seen my grandma do the claw grip all her life,' comedian Atsuko Okatsuka said in an email. 'Every grandma of every culture and race always has, like, a napkin or a piece of trash that they've been carrying around for a long time, maybe years. 'I have taken on the passed-down tradition of claw hands myself,' she added. 'Whether it's mayonnaise packets, or napkins or my cellphone, I am always holding stuff.' For Halle Robbe, personal experience with this tradition prompted her to create the GCS account on Instagram. In 2021, Robbe had run out to a nearby bodega. 'I just brought my keys, my wallet and my AirPods with me, and then I was going to get a Red Bull,' she said, noting that she did not bring a bag. 'I had it all in my hand so I took a photo and put it on my personal Instagram with some silly caption that was some version of, like, 'After hundreds of years of evolution, this is what I can do.'' Her friends responded to her post almost immediately, saying they do the same thing. Robbe created the GCS account that same day. She initially solicited photos from friends and co-workers, and now she receives more than 100 submissions a day. 'I think we've all been there when we have just, like, an assortment of stuff and we're running out the door,' said Abby Cox, 29, a fashion historian and a YouTube content creator. 'I need to make sure I have my glasses. I need my water bottle. Do I need to bring a snack? 'And so you're going out the door with your purse,' she added, 'and then the stuff that should be in your purse.' Purses? Pockets? Not necessary when you can palm a dozen items. Photo / Aileen Son, The New York Times A popular theory around the origins of the claw grip is that it is a reaction to Big Fashion's refusal to provide women with the functional pockets that are standard in men's clothing. It was not always this way. As far back as the Regency and Victorian eras, women had pockets in the form of bags that were tied around their waists underneath their big, flouncy skirts, Cox said. Their dresses had slits through which women could access these pockets, which could be as big or small as necessary. Alternatively, 'they would have pockets in the hems of skirts or they would have what we call butt pockets, because in the back pleats of gowns, you could hide a deep pocket,' Cox said. In one of her YouTube videos, in which she is dressed in Victorian clothing, she put an entire bottle of prosecco in such a pocket. In the late 20th century, as female clothing shifted toward narrower silhouettes and lighter textiles, substantial pockets became difficult to incorporate, so they were sized down or erased from garments altogether, she said. Perhaps in the quest for pocket parity, the claw grip is 'this weird thing of trying to go without bags and purses to prove a point,' Cox said. 'Are people, without fully consciously realising it, trying to prove we don't want bags anymore, we want pockets?' Several brands have managed to insert themselves into the claw grip chatter, offering products that enable carrying more stuff – think of the wallets or cardholders that attach to phones – which turns this act of making the otherwise invisible contents of a bag visible into a marketing opportunity. Among the products catering to the tendency of women to carry things in their hands is a phone case by Rhode that includes a lip gloss holder. Photo / Getty Images 'Unlike fashion, you don't generally see beauty brands because your products are in your bathroom or in your purse,' said Rachel Strugatz, a beauty correspondent at Puck. 'It's much harder for beauty items to become a status symbol in the way that fashion does with sneakers or shoes or handbags or literally anything else where you know what the brand is.' In February 2024, Hailey Bieber's brand, Rhode, released a phone case with a built-in lip gloss holder that generated a wait list of more than 200,000 interested customers. Now the case and the lip gloss have become immediately recognisable, partly because of how many times they're seen peeking through women's hands. Particularly Bieber's hands. This month, Glossier – which from its earliest days had packaged items in pink transparent reusable pouches – released a pair of terry-cloth shorts with a sliver of a pocket that fit only lip balms. There are also side pockets, which could fit a phone, and a single belt loop, potentially for key rings. When designing the shorts, Glossier did not set out to meet this phenomenon, but 'there was an unconscious knowing' that things are now more likely to be photographed out there, in the wild, 'especially something that would be otherwise hidden in a bag,' said Kyle Richardson, a senior designer at Glossier. (The morning of our interview, she carried her phone, office badge, wallet case and a bag of rice in one hand.) There are also theories that the claw grip reflects the chaos of the minds of women who are thinking through to-do lists and mentally writing text messages and running errands all at the same time. 'I think holding things in our hands actually is our need to keep something in control,' Okatsuka said. 'I started getting submissions that were like, 'Oh, I'm carrying XYZ and the weight of the world' or something metaphorical like that,' Robbe said. The claw grip, she added, could be seen as 'an extension of or in parallel with the mental and emotional and spiritual burdens that women carry'. In 2023, Robbe started a print magazine called Pinky to explore the 'metaphysical' things women also carry. It is an idea that artist Maira Kalman started to explore three years ago. 'One day at a farmers market, I saw a woman carrying an absolutely gigantic cabbage,' Kalman said in a 2023 TED Talk. 'It made me think of all the things women hold, literally and metaphorically.' Yes, they hold cabbages, balloons, phones. But also 'the home and the family and the children and the food. The friendships, the work, the work of the world and the work of being human. The memories and the troubles and the sorrows and the triumphs and the love. Men do as well, but not quite in the same way.' She turned her observations into a book of paintings. It is called 'Women Holding Things.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alisha Haridasani Gupta Photographs by: Aileen Son ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
