Final Acts Announced For 2007 Big Day Out

The Vines will be bringing over their eclectic hybrid of grungy, garage rock swagger, '60s psych, and '70s pop at a Big Day Out near you this summer. For a change of pace, reggae master, Luciano (Jamaica) is coming, renowned for his rasta message of love and peace set to irresistible melodies and mellow, soulful vocals.

Nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for their second and latest album, 'The Warning', electro-funkers, Hot Chip (UK) are Londoners Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke and Felix Martin. Big Day Out also welcomes That 1 Guy, (a.k.a Mike Silverman) (USA), a one-man band straight outta your imagination who plays a home made, seven foot tall, metallic Magic Pipe which he claims has a limitless harmonic, sonic and rhythmic range.

Chris Knox, the 53 year-old spiritual godfather of the DIY scene has not fronted a proper band since Toy Love strode the stage in 1980. He spent 25 years between then and now recording at home, solo and as a member of the wonderfully weird duo Tall Dwarfs, until last year going into a proper studio to make a record with a (kind of) regular band. And so we have Chris Knox And The Nothing - a high spirited romp through one of the great musical songbooks with the most idiosyncratically talented frontman NZ has ever produced. The Have have been having a good time since the day in 2002 that they stumbled out of school and straight into a tour van. And now at the ripe old age of 21, the quartet have got a debut album in the can called 'Back To The Burning Wreck', packed with dense blues-rock riffage and stomping tunes. They've just accepted their third invitation to South By Southwest, having made the UK magazine Music Week's 'best of sxsw' cd in 2002 and returned to Austin in 2005.

The lovechild of Sean James Donnelly, SJD's haunting melodies and beautifully crafted songs, demonstrate the full musical scope of electronica over two brilliant albums on Auckland's Round trip Mars label with a third being readied for March 07 release. Long-standing regulars on the NZ hip-hop scene, 4 Corners formed in 1998 when MCs Koma and Hepaklypz joined forces with DJ Omega B. 4 Corners' album 'The Foundations' was released July 2006 and featured vocal collaborations with many stars of the Aotearoa Hip-hop scene including Che Fu, Ladi 6, Tyra Hammond, Maia Rata along with beats from P-Money, DJ Militia, Fire and Ice and DJ Ali.  Their latest single has just been released and Now I Know features Ladi 6.

Voom have been plying their trade in gorgeous pop songwriting since the early '90s when songs like Beth, Relax, Sad Surf Scenario made them regular hitmakers on New Zealand student radio. Who knows where they went in the meantime, but Voom came wondering back out of the West Coast bush this year with twigs in their jumpers and a tremendous second album 'hello, are you there?' on the staunch little indie L'il Chief Records.  The Tuesdays' winning ways with a snappy tune and a classic two-girl-two-boy line-up have sent them charging up the bnet charts with every release.  The North Shore Pony Club are a genre bending block party band who busted down from the over ground at the beginning of 2005.  As a couple of kids reared on 80's pop sophistication, their music is an amalgamation of black gold and white trash mixed up in a bastard disco blender or you can call it electro/club/rock.  Mash it up big time styles and serve it with fries, bitches.

Kora are a band with huge live presence - the unity in their sound is all the more powerful due to four of the five band members being actual brothers. After topping New Zealand's alternative radio charts with their debut single Politician, Kora unleashed a Gold-selling EP, 'Volume', in late 2004.  Suicide Dogs are a straight-up punk rock band based in Auckland city.  Formed from members of Auckland scene stalwarts Cinix and Graveyard Rumble in late 2004, the band have gone on to quickly establish a support base in and around Auckland central.  Suicide Dogs have an album due for release Nov 2006. During the first world war the allies apparently employed a bold tactic to destroy german tanks.... dogs carrying explosives strapped to their backs! This manoeuvre wasn't always successful in destroying tanks and the dogs were invariably killed. (Stink!)

South Auckand hip-hop crew Smashproof are led by chart-topping MC Tyree. Their first mixtape 'Tales of the Southside' featured remixes which Tyree completed for New York record labels SRC and Ruff Ryders and was hosted by Akon. They have a debut album coming on Move The Crowd in 2007 with contributions from Akon and Nina Sky, as well as Move The Crowd's Ethical, Mr Sicc and Phrase. Young MC Ethical, out of the Breakin' Wreckwordz camp, joins Smashproof on the Big Day Out stage. Garage power-poppers The Demi Whores emerged in 2001 from deepest, darkest West Auckland.  Their latest single Coffin Car has hit number two on the BFM chart and their brilliantly titled Title is Untitled is up for Rock Song of the Year at the BNets this weekend.

Nesian Mystik's two albums and numerous hits have made them one of the most popular groups in the country over the past four years; they blend their Maori, Tongan, Samoan and Cook Island/Aitutaki backgrounds into a  ball of quickwitted musicality, and they combine rap, soulful harmonies, scratching and acoustic guitar has become a signature for their success. Bulletproof (aka Jay Cyanide) holds the reputation for being one of Australasia's fiercest drum'n'bass selectors.  With an onslaught of new remixes and collaborations lining the crates of the scene's finest, and a record of many of his best works being released on Concord Dawn's Uprising label, Bulletproof is getting ready for another round of dates locked in for 2007. 22-year-old hip-hop DJ D-Form currently plays to capacity crowds every Saturday at Auckland's premier hip hop club 4:20 and appears regularly onstage and in the studio with many of the hottest MCs in town.

Take no prisoners juggernaught The Larry Normans have been spilling their heavy rock riffs and hard-liquor-only riders all over stages throughout New Zealand's North Island in the two years they've spent careering from one drunken mishap to the next.  Their just-released debut album shows a filthy rock substance underpins all that abuse though and the Larry Normans will burn brightly as always at Big Day Out 07. The D4 will be sadly missed but the good news for all fans of great rock'n'roll is that frontman Jimmy Christmas is all ready to testify in his great new band, The Defendants. They've been mixing it up in some of Auckland's lowest rock dives over the past few months and Jimmy's ready to hit the stage and open the Big Day Out's Essential Stage with a set of hot new songs.

Ill Semantics have just dropped their second album 'Good Musik'. Ten years down the line, Ill Semantics are stalwarts on the Dawn Raid scene and the album features a whole host of guests turning up this time round, including Dawn Raid favourites Aradhna and Adeaze, as well as Tommy Stowers and new R&B crooner Lemuel, who stars on first single, On & On. You'll also find the fourth corner of hip-hop culture to the Auckland Big Day Out in full effect when leading local graffiti art collective and hip-hop company Disruptiv add their artistic flair to the event with world champion Askew and Pest5 of TMD crew creating artwork on the day.   Disruptiv started as the country's first professional aerosol art business, and has grown into a multi-media hip-hop agency running New Zealand's only dedicated hop-hop and street art space Disrupt Gallery on Auckland's K-Road.  They'll be packing their cans and bringing a new live visual element to the stadium. And of course GraffitiGuard will be on call the following day.

Still to come - all the fun and madness you've come to expect from the Lilyworld crew plus all the weird and wonderful artistic and visual attractions to be found amongst the carnival action.

The full line-up for the 2007 Big Day Out in Auckland is Tool, The Killers, My Chemical Romance, Muse, Lily Allen, Violent Femmes, Jet, Scribe, Lupe Fiasco, Kasabian, The Crystal Method DJs,  The Streets, Evermore, Dimmer, Blindspott, The Vines, Peaches and Herms, Deceptikonz, Shapeshifter, Goodnight Nurse, , DJ Sir-Vere, John Butler Trio, The Veils, Eskimo Joe, Spank Rock, The Tutts, The Mint Chicks, Diplo, Trivium, Hot Chip, Luciano, That 1 Guy, David Kilgour, PNC, Justice, The Presets, Minuit, Opensouls, Shaky Hands, Jakob, Sinate, The Rabble, Afra & the Incredible Beatbox Band, Little Birdy, John Cooper Clarke, Elemeno P, Die! Die! Die!, The Tuesdays, The Rock and Roll Machine, The Have, SJD, Chris Knox & the Nothing, 4 Corners, Voom, Kora, Suicide Dogs, North Shore Pony Club, Smashproof and Ethical, Nesian Mystik, Bulletproof, Ill Semantics, The Demi Whores, The Larry Normans, The Defendants, D-Form, Disruptiv Live Art

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