Music
Press
With so many quality acts gracing our shores at present, it would be hard to see every band or artist that you want to see. I am so happy to have seen the indie rock duo the Kills play at Auckland's Transmission room with the excellent up and coming band Bionic Pixie.
"So, who are the Kills?" A lo-fi indie rock group that formed in 2000. The band members are Jamie Hince & Alison Mosshart. They have three albums/three extended plays released with the latest being Midnight Boom (2008)
There is a unique chemistry between the musicians Jamie and Alison which was quite apparent when watching them perform live. They have a special dynamic link to entertain the audience whilst having no drummer or bassist. They have an amazing sound and appeal. They are very original with a fun, experimental & often bluesy vibe.
The gig was on Thursday, March 26 at the Auckland underground venue. (Transmission Room) It is a few staircase levels underground, in fact there are no windows. Air conditioning and fans were a plenty to keep everyone cool.
The Auckland electro-hip hop/punk band Bionic Pixie played first. They have been gathering good support as one of the hottest local acts with regular gigs including opening for the likes of Peaches last year. Zoe Fleury fronts the band backed by fellow musicians Aaron Short & Jordan Clark. They played a very energetic set. Showing the audience a treat of new songs with a style that is all their own. Fashionable costumes and futuristic beats which got the attention of the crowd. I believe there is an EP due to come out this year and a lot more shows. A fresh & new sound with a dance/electronica base. This band will be playing a lot more shows and are well worth checking out.
The Kills played an awesome set featuring songs from all three albums. It was a packed house with little to no room to move with a crowd of all ages in attendance. There were massive cheers for playing the songs cheap and cheerful, tape song, hook and line, no wow, black balloon and last day of magic. The duo has quite a lot of songs in their short history which come across very artfully and personal.
What impressed me most about the Kills show was the ability to play song after song displaying great vocal ranges for each song with exquisite timing. They both expressed during the show much gratitude to the fans in the audience as you could feel that the two-piece were being well received and celebrated. These are just rewards of making interesting music like Bionic Pixie in a style of their own.
Both Jamie and Alison have a natural stage presence and alluring personalities. They make it look so easy as they are both very talented. An inspiration to aspiring musicians for forming a connection with fans in their performances. Expressive through a combination of touring around the world and writing/recording then performing good new music.
If you are a fan of indie rock/electronica music. I recommend both these artists as well worth checking out. They both provide something special and are a little bit different from the rest - Voxy.co.nz
Bionic Pixie opened the night, having changed her backing line-up since last I saw her and added a heart-shaped cherry red guitar to her outfit. The band looked more cohesive since the days when her dad – cute, sure – provided bass guitar and effects, and that cohesion ran all the way to the fine points of her band’s sound. It was so worked out it could’ve been a backing track, only it wasn’t.
- realgroove.co.nz
After sun blocking it up we headed over to see the cuties that are Bionic Pixie. I saw them last year when they performed at Ward Lane in the Tron, so it’s safe to say I was pretty excited for another electric act from the trio. Watching singer, Zoe Fluery prance around the stage in her sweet little tutu-like outfit was a treat in itself. She’s gorgeous and makes it easy to see how the band is so popular for both the lads and the ladies with all that beaming confidence and hotness. I’d have to say the only time where a softer side was revealed was when the band experienced ‘technical difficulties’ leaving Fluery with little to say but as soon as it was sorted the team was back on form and as charming as ever. - nzmusic.com
Delightfully named and equally perfectly formed, the robo-pop and electro punk carry-on that Zoe Fluery and her mates dish out is all too easily imagined and the best thing is that when the trio erupt onstage the BIONIC PIXIE experience is everything you could hope for. Dressed in fetching silver hoods, they’ve wowed the crowds opening for Peaches and strutting their stuff around Fashion Week. Describe it: “I love the words ‘fresh and exciting, with beats that make your heart race a million miles an hour’” says Zoe. - scoop.co.nz
Straying a bit from Knox Road’s usual music selection is electro-dance-beat-maker Bionic Pixie. The woman behind the sound, Zoe Fleury (best name award?), comes from my favorite country in the world New Zealand and tears down the house. There’s hardly a second to stop and think with her songs. The harsh beats stand out from most musicians making more simplistic and clean stuff these days.
Is it just me, or does New Zealand breed natural talent? I don’t really try to understand. I usually leave it up to our friends at Einstein Music Journal, but it always baffles me. One of these days I’m flying there and seeing every live act in the country. The song Bionic Pixie’s been promoting is “Quit Breathing,” and it’s just great. Links below. - http://knoxroad.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/bionic-pixie/
Discography
Broken Machine - Video And Single release soon.
Photos
Bio
When the aftershocks of the new were subsiding and the musical landscape was becoming oh-so-familiar again, the initial demos of New Zealand artist Bionic Pixie were being passed around by the tastemakers, the boredom-haters, the open-minded, and the seekers of new kicks. The “whoas” of incredulity became ever more audible following Bionic Pixie’s debut live appearances where she fast became ‘the
number one crush’ of many: a stunning visual presence with eye-popping performances accompanying the space-age, rhythmic electro
punk-hop vibe, which elicited the kind of simmering excitement which meant something new was happening. Something quite
extraordinary…
In isolation, even the facts about Zoe Fleury, aka Bionic Pixie, seem rather extraordinary. Playing drums since the age of eleven, she was equally at home as the rhythmic powerhouse driving complex post-progressive psych music or ragged two-piece punk; a music school graduate who is actually entirely self-taught where it counts; a feature in the current fashion scene with a visionary, outré fashion sense…this is the kind of list one sees when checking the fact sheet, and grasped by the various publications who started taking notice in NZ and Australia. Words ought to make things easier, but attempting to absorb this information and get a handle on what is going on here inevitably leaves unanswered the question posed by so
many since Bionic Pixie appeared: who is that Pixie?
If Bionic Pixie is, as Zoe maintains, “all cyborg apart from the heart”, is she referring to an
alter-ego character or to the music itself? Certainly, the ultra music of Bionic Pixie has a metaphorical heart and spirit which cannot emanate from within the binary ones-and-zeros of an MPC or any drum machine second lives. And however cute buttons might be, they have nothing on the lady pressing them. So it’s perhaps more useful to avoid terms such as ‘alter- ego’ that suggest a degree of pretension, contrivance, or careerism, because Bionic Pixie --
once described as “a tiny dynamo of electrifying, positive energy” – doesn’t necessarily draw
any boundary-lines between the ‘zing’ of her ‘sing thing’ and the more muted tones of the everyday real world. Bionic Pixie is not so much a role as an expressive peek into the imagination.
What exists in the world of Bionic Pixie is intriguing: the colours and shapes of Japanese popular culture; the ozone-laced excitement of changing seasons; a jigsaw puzzle of high fashion and pop-art arbitrarily assembled; secret language and inadvertent signifiers. A self- envisaged realm which is inclusive and welcoming, and DIY in as much that anybody could do it if they had the vivid imagination, creative ferocity, and relentless drive coupled with the remarkably charismatic individual talents of Zoe Fleury. Phew.
As to the ultra-sound of Bionic Pixie, this has so far meant all things to all people. Real Groove decreed it as “cyber-nomadic rap”; Auckland indie Cheese On Toast reported the sound of Bionic Pixie is “Rihanna vs Bow Wow…an industrial Robyn”; while Black Magazine
“MIA, Dreamburger, NIN, R2D2, and glow in the dark sprinkles in a blender…” Certainly, if you threw a handful of marbles into the air,
more than a few would land on something you could associate with Bionic Pixie, whether that would be her recent NZ tour mates Hawnay Troof and Peaches And The Kills – but you really never know what is behind the sparkling silver curtains.
So, into the future.
Links
