Local Cape Town band, The Plastics, have just released their second single, “Jukebox”, to radio stations nationwide. This is the second single to come from their critically acclaimed album SHARK. Their first single, “Caves”, reached number one on the TUKSfm SA Top 10 shortly after release.

“Jukebox” was written about six months before the release of SHARK and explores how the modern musical space has made it difficult for new bands to reach the ears of listeners, largely because of the inundation of commercial carbon-copied songs. Lead singer, Pascal Righini, talks about how this affects musicians in a poetic light: “There is such an overload of material coming out that nothing seems to matter and the bravest most relevant music often get pushed aside by mass-produced commercial trash, but the truth remains that good music is relevant and always matters.”

This weekend the “greatest gathering of the pet industry”, the World of Cats and Dogs and Pet Exhibition, was held at the Good Hope Centre. The event was first held in 1996 in Durban. In 2003 the show was taken to Johannesburg’s the Dome where it enjoyed a resounding success.

WODAC is renowned for its world-class attractions, and this is the only event of its kind in Africa. The primary purpose of such an event is to “expose the public to purebred dogs and cats” while informing people about what responsible dog, cat and pet ownership involves.

The atmosphere in the Grand Arena was expectant – this was it, 30 Seconds to Mars would be on next and the night’s wildness would begin. We had missed the first band due to a series of unfortunate events – we left the tickets at home (on the fridge), took a wrong turn, took another wrong turn, had to draw money, you get the drift. But we were finally there and nothing would stop us from enjoying the amazingness that was in store.

When the music finally started up there was a line of traditional African drummers beating their instruments, and alongside them drummer Shannon Leto was kicking his bass drum and pummeling his snare. Shannon is known for his fast-paced drumming and is awesome to watch.

Local Cape Town DJ act, Haezer, has got some great things happening both at home and internationally. He’s known for his signature electro/trash sound and has captured the hearts of many South African party-animals, but he also seems intent on taking over the world.

Haezer has been performing since 2008 and in that time has opened for visiting international DJs such as Steve Aoki, Gtronic, Le Castle Vania and more. But he hasn’t just been spinning the decks on his home ground; this talented DJ has performed in Germany and Australia, touring with many well-known international acts.

He has just recently released a new EP Dominator featuring CIRCE, which showcases remixes by Ikki, Black Dove Underground, Snap Crack, KRFTKDZ and Boomzers. This is his second EP and was released digitally by Italian label Onion Records on BEATPORT.

Of course we all know that part of Die Antwoord’s “charm” is their love of being daring and pretty much telling the clean-cut, law-abiding citizens all over the world to f-off. So it’s no surprise then to hear that they’ve recently been involved in a very public and controversial disagreement with director and photographer Sean Meterlerkamp. And then to top off their divisive and decadent “trouble pie” is the appropriate “cherry”: having their new music video banned from YouTube.

How it all started: Die Antwoord posted what the media is calling a ‘libelous’ statement on their Facebook page:

Crowded House in South Africa in 2007

Crowded House played to an almost-full Grand Arena at the Grand West Casino last week Tuesday (October 26) and I was lucky enough to see them. It was so great to see a mixture of generations, races and types, flowing into the venue, excitement and expectations written all over their faces and ready-to-groove bodies.

Their South African Tour was brought to us eager fans by 567 Cape Talk, Talk Radio 702 and East Coast Radio with the first show kicking off in the Mothercity.