Dunno. It's rather sneaked up on me this year. Hard to believe there's a mere two weeks to gather the requisite sack-load of pressies...

Usually about now I have a crack at recommending local music as a thing to gift to your loved ones, but for the first time I'm not sure whether that has any relevance. Are CDs still presents that anyone welcomes?

The Eternal Sea just released.

I know they are here at the Watusi Country Club. But we veer towards the old school. And I still have a bit of a gripe at the fact that Spotify is pretty much destroying any revenue from recorded music. The ramifications of this will not become apparent immediately, but in a couple of years things are going to get seriously alarming.

It is the smaller independent artists who will suffer the most, which means the vast majority of New Zealand bands.

For them, being able to sell a few hundred CDs was what made recording affordable in the first place. No sales, no recordings, and a whole heap more New Zealand music will be lost, just as it was before the nineties when access to recording studios was so restricted that many bands – and certainly many Tauranga bands – disappeared without leaving any recoded legacy.

But, just in case you are of a mind to spread the love with local music at Christmas, I'll run a few ideas at the end of the column.

Before that I'd like to give a shout out for a slightly left-field event at the hall I've been going on about a bit this year, the Te Puna Memorial Hall.

This Saturday, December 12 Rosie Holmes is putting on ‘Ceilidh', something well-known to those of Celtic origin. For others, Rosie describes it as 'sort of barn dance”.

And when I was talking to her she had an update on the current state of the hall (due for demolition in service of a new roundabout): 'I did think it might be the last function and would be a fitting way to end the life of the hall with a country hall type of dance. But NZTA are dragging their feet so it looks like the hall will be with us for at least another year”.

There we go – good news for the Te Puna community.

Anyway, Saturday sounds like fun. There's Auckland Celtic band Tamlin, Fiona Murdoch from Hamilton on hand to tutor folks in appropriate dance steps, and there'll be a bar. Things kick off at 7.30pm with tickets $20 on the door or in advance from Rosie. Phone 07 5526291 or email redruth@vodafone.co.nz

Okay. Local music for Christmas. Here are a few ideas.

First of all, the heavier end. Mark Wright and his band The Eternal Sea released a self-titled album that I'd call modern metal. Dark, deep and grungy with impressive guitar and brooding songs. Adding guitar on that was Sean Bodley, who also released an album under his own name – ‘Pitchblack' – a hard rock instrumental guitar music in the Joe Satriani/Steve Vai mode. For either of these, contact the artists through their Facebook pages.

Sean also features on another local CD, Tim Julian's ‘Southern Utopia', a long-awaited eighties-influenced concept album about, well, life, the universe and living in New Zealand. It's pretty damned impressive. For that as well as CDs from many other artists he's recorded at his Colourfield Studio, including several CDs from Marion Arts and Bonjour Swing, check out www.fragilecolours.com.

Lastly, the two most established bands in town. Brilleaux released a new album, ‘Pictures of the Queen', after a very successful UK tour. It has 12 hard-driving slices of English rhythm ‘n' blues, and can be obtained via the band's website www.brilleaux.co.nz

Meanwhile, Kokomo has not released an album this year but instead three singles; the latest being a lo-fi techno-country offering ‘Plastic Jesus' which was launched last week. Their stuff is available via www.kokomo.co.nz