Grouper (Portland) is the project of Liz Harris. Touring the states with Animal Collective in May, she has collaborated with Xiu Xiu, releasing Creepshow in 2007 In a short space of time, Grouper has become the name on the lips of the underground music world having captured hearts worldwide with her distinct blend of noise, ambience and a dream-pop sensibility. She submerges her songs in a shimmering haze of hiss, looping chorals and decomposed guitar feedback, but somewhere in there you can hear the ghosts of My Bloody Valentine or possibly Slowdive.

Grouper’s music makes you think about time; how her freeform drones seem to transcend it and how her digital aging processing inevitably links to it. With the future uncertain and the present almost inevitably forgotten as soon as it happens, Grouper maintains that special though not unique hauntology that grants her a spectral connection to the past as chanting ghosts bemoan tomorrow’s solace today. These unforgettable harmonies and vocal lines that embed themselves into your consciousness before you even realize it are the key to the Grouper’s success and the reason why she makes such a lasting impression. There is something to Liz Harris’ music that defies time and makes you sit up and listen.

Stefan Neville’s Pumice work throughout its ten year plus existence, remains as one of the most relevant and prolific in the New Zealand experimental music scene, and undeniably significant in the psych/outsider/free folk scenario. Although Pumice has always had an undeniable charm in the ways of ramshackle pop and dusted lo-fi noise excursions, his work has shifted into different sonorities and styles from the mid nineties to the present time. Pumice cruises the convergence of pop, folk and noise strains with bona fide inner mystique. sputtering sub-underground skiffle aims for outer zones, diamond cuts of nervous guitar with pesky hooks that sting and tickle tread rough hewn punk turf, pop tangents charm and woozy synth blurts & drones thread the patchwork patterns with hulk-like grace.

12 March 2009 – Auckland – Whammy Bar

START: THU 12 MARCH 2009, 12:00 PM
VENUE/CITY: WHAMMY BAR, AUCKLAND.

14 March 2009 – Wellington – Happy Bar

START: SAT 14 MARCH 2009, 12:00 PM
VENUE/CITY: HAPPY BAR, WELLINGTON.

19 March 2009 – Christchurch – St Lukes, corner of Manchester and Kilmore

START: THU 19 MARCH 2009, 12:00 PM
VENUE/CITY: ST LUKES, CORNER OF MANCHESTER AND KILMORE, CHRISTCHURCH.

21 March 2009 – Dunedin – Chicks Hotel – Port Chalmers

START: SAT 21 MARCH 2009, 12:00 PM
VENUE/CITY: CHICKS HOTEL – PORT CHALMERS, DUNEDIN.