Rosina and the Weavers are an up-and-coming Indie Pop quartet who can bring Rock fire power on stage.
They have a debut album out, Hitching the Starlight Highway, from which they feature four songs. A review can be found here.
They hail from Franklin, the land of potatoes and onions and the breadbasket of New Zealand and beyond. It also was the region most aligned to the Deep South of America, until it started to shed that like a snake in the Eighties.
The ghosts still howl around there, and the group cannot help but tap some of that primal energy.
The band is Rose Rosina Evangeline Carpenter lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Matt Collins lead guitar, Blair Anderson bass, Nicho Lewis drums.
They begin with debut single Friday Night at the Kentish, about the local pub in Waiuku. A noisy clatter like the recorded version. One reason why they might have been labelled rockers. The subject is domestic abuse, alcohol and the inability to express love.
This was pub culture in New Zealand for well over a century, and Once Were Warriors could easily be recognised as their hometown, before they were born.
Folk Rock is more accurate as they move straight into Bowie in the Bathtub, off their album. The guitar is heavier, and they play around with the guy’s Ziggy Stardust persona.
Just as good is Marilyn, a reverential homage to the iconic actress who arose from humble poor white itinerant origins. On stage tonight and it reinforces the Smith’s influence.
Where Folkies transmigrate to Indie whatever.
West Coast Ramble, also from the album, and the music is rolling and seductive as the singer ends up wanting relief. See the waves/ Salt spray/ Pull me out. Easy to get swallowed and lost.
They finish with Karuwha, which is all about those howling ghosts and the Land Wars as the Crown forces came through the choke point.
Grunge lead guitar opens, some witchy intense vocals and the atmosphere is dark and heavier. Cause this is the hour/ This is the place.
They may have taken some inspiration from Laurie Anderson’s From the Air.
Rosina and the Weavers are an interesting group to follow.
Rev. Orange Peel
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