Category Archives: Music

Last.fm knows all my secrets

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Last.fm is a cool web service that takes a feed from your music player (like iTunes) and figures out what you’re listening to and makes lists and graphs and shares it with your friends.

The only problem is, I listen to most music on my iPod, which isn’t hooked up to Last.fm, so it gets all the songs I listen to on my laptop. And I’ve come to realise that when I listen to music on my laptop, it tends to be something I’m currently obsessing over.

It seems like a rather teenage thing to do – you acquire a new song (or album) that you love and then play it over and over and over again because it is just the best song in the entire world.

As a result, my Last.fm top songs list is skewed to all these songs that I’ve briefly gone mental over in the last five years. And it’s a bit embarrassing because I don’t necessarily have the same feelings or connection to those tunes any more.

But I’m just going to live with it and present my top 10 songs, according to Last.fm, and exactly why it was that I listened to them so obsessively at the time.

1. The Cribs – You’re Gonna Lose Us
I was on holiday in Napier with my laptop but not my iPod. I’d just discovered the Cribs, so every night when I was hanging out in my hotel room, I’d listen to the Cribs’ first two albums. So now I have this strong association between rowdy pop songs with shout-along choruses and Napier. Better than art deco.

2. The Smiths – Back to the Old House
This is nothing more than my favourite Smiths song. It’s a bit sad and wistful and nostalgic, but it’s all about not wallowing in the past because “there’s too many bad memories”. I used to listen to this a lot in my old flat in Mt Eden, so it serves as a nice precaution for any attempts at pining after Auckland.

3. 1200 Techniques – Karma
This song reminds me of driving down a deserted South-Western Motorway in the middle of the night, smokin’ cigarettes, the warm night breeze coming through the window… yet this is an entirely false memory. Instead I’m left with some Australians rapping about karma over Hot Chocolate’s Brother Louie.

4. Van Halen – Panama
I think I can blame this on the Van Halen binge I went on after watching the “Freaks and Geeks” boxset. This song is awesome because a) it has nothing to do with Panama, b) “Panama-uh-uh-uh-oh-oh”, and c) Diamond Dave’s “sex in a car as metaphor for sex in general” monologue (“I reach down between my legs and ease the seat back”).

5. Scandal with Patty Smyth – The Warrior
There’s an episode of The Family Guy where one of the nonsequitor cutaways is of “Stewie’s iPod commercial”, which shows him doing the iPod silhouette dance to “The Warrior”. Just that little 15-second burst of the song was enough to trigger some long repressed memory, and before long I was obsessively listening to what is possibly the worst line in a pop song ever: “Your eyes touch me physically.” Literally.

6. Morrissey – Glamorous Glue
I saw this on a late night music video show and realised that somehow it had previously passed me by (as has much of Morrissey’s solo oeuvre). It’s got a lurching T-Rex-esque glam rock sound, but what of the lyrics? Apparently the song is about drinking, solvent abuse (which is not glamorous, kids), semen, the 1992 British general election, or all of the above. I just like the bit where he sings “everyone lies, nobody minds” and “London is dead! London is dead! London is dead!”.

7. Robbie Williams – Lazy Days
In the Britpop documantary “Live Forever”, this song is played near the end, when the guitar-based bands were losing popularity in the late ’90s to pop groups and solo artists such as Mr Williams. I scribbled down some lyrics in the darkness of the Rialto cinema to lead me back to it. It’s rather a Britpoppy song, with lots of chuggy guitar, but sadly the fat dancer from Take That went off in another direction when a later single, “Angels”, proved to be a massive megahit.

8. Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict a Riot
I believe “Never Mind the Buzzcocks” is to blame for this tune, with it being used in the Introductions round. And then that lead to me listening to the song, then buying the album, then becoming totally obsessed with it, until now I’m thinking, “Whoa, it’s five years old?”

9. Stevie Wonder – Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing
Nik sang this on series two of NZ Idol. The teens on the internet were all, “wtf iz diz old ppl song i do not no it!!!!”, whereas I thought, “Hey, that’s an uplifting tune I haven’t heard in a while.” It’s nice to be reminded of Stevie Wonder’s older songs that didn’t suck, even though it’s hard to listen to this one without being reminded of the “Sex and the City” theme tune.

10. The Replacements – Alex Chilton
See, I love the Replacements, but my love for the ‘Mats is mostly centred around their “Let It Be” album. Then one day I decided to let the internet guide me to the best songs off other albums, and that’s how I found “Alex Chilton”. It’s so cheerful and upbeat, and it’s really just about loving music, which seems like a good enough place to be.

We always hang in a buffalo stance

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Simon at The Opinionated Diner posted this old Peter Urlich music video, from a time in 1989 when Urlich was being pop/funk act called B Cup:

The song isn’t really worth listening to, but I found myself strangely drawn to the non-Urlich visuals in the video: shots of downtown Auckland, people drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, sleek yet full late ’80s hair, hoop earrings, Lycra. It’s all very “Look at me! I am being very urban! I am cool!”

I was about 14 when this video was shot, and this was the life I coveted. Stuck in rural Hamilton, I dreamed of living in a art deco flat in Auckland, with a media job, and I’d get to go to parties and meet interesting people. (It’s that naive teenage thinking that says fulfilment comes from a checklist.)

It’s not like I consciously pursued that, but it all eventually happened. Last year I realised that all my 1989 dreams had come true. As soon as I realised that, I knew something had to change, and that’s one of the reasons I got a new job and moved to Wellington. I mean, who wants to live a 14-year-old’s dream life?

O for awesome

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Exhibit A: Funkmaster George Clinton’s 1993 single Paint the White House black:

It seems incredible to think that when that song came out – only 15 years ago – the idea of a black president seemed like wishful thinking. Back then, the other Clinton, Bill, was the newly elected pres and he was a friend to the negro so that was as good as it was going to get.

But now, today… Wow. It feels like some sort of momentous historic event. Maybe this is what the ’60s were like to live through.

At last – one very good reason to not feel so gloomy about the future.

Master Blaster

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Skip When Shuffling: Yes (it’s too depressing otherwise)

A few days ago I was listening to my iPod on shuffle on the way home from work when Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” came on. It’s a cool song. It was released in 1980 and is a feel-good tribute to Bob Marley, with the classic forget-your-worries-and-have-a-good-time theme.

But then the second verse came along and Stevie sang of one of his reasons to be jammin’:

Peace has come to Zimbabwe
Third World’s right on the one
Now’s the time for celebration
‘Cause we’ve only just begun

Oh no.

It’s hard to hear that lyric now without feeling sad. Back when that song was written, Zimbabwe had just won independence from the British and Mugabe was going to usher in a new era of strength, hope and, uh, peace.

Things weren’t supposed to go in totally the opposite direction.

Plastic Fan-frickin’-tastic

I was in at Salvation Army shop in Naenae, when I found a tape called “We Carry The Cup” – the official EP soundtrack for the 1986 America’s Cup campaign. It features the #1 smash hit song “Sailing Away”, which is probably the worst song ever in the history of anything ever. Ever.

I realised that someone born after, say, 1983, would have no memory of the magical time prior to 1986 when New Zealanders did not generally care about boat racing. They probably have no memory of cassette tapes either.

I showed various people the tape and one of the first things a lot of them said was, “Do you have tape player?” Yeah, I have a double cassette deck in my stereo (high-speed dubbing!). As totally obvious as it is, I didn’t realise that ordinary stereos don’t have tape players any more. They’re about as archaic now as a cathode-ray television. My stereo seems so old I feel like it should have doily on top of it.

Photos? Oh, why not!

Ignore him. He's just doing it to get attention.

Jesus of Naenae was such a staunch Housemartins fan, he shaved a cross into the side of his head.

Mothra Fail

“It’s a giant moth – a moth as big as Godzilla. If only there was some word we could use that would evoke both the scary sci-fi of a Godzilla-like creature and general mothiness. Oh, I know – Mothzilla!!!!”

Yes, we have those too

What, you mean your local copy shop doesn’t do laminating? Get with it!

Happy Panda Lucky Karaoke Fun Pie

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Happy Panda Lucky Karaoke Fun Pie (Or, Hints and Tips for Successful Modern Karaoke-ing)

  • When the night’s getting on and your voice is starting to get a little hoarse (pony!!!), go for the punk. Singing “Anarchy In The UK” or “Lust For Life” is much easier to sing than anything with one of those melody things.
  • But don’t try to match your hoarse voice with “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Yeah, Bonnie Tyler sounds like she gargles gravel, but she can sang, yo. You’ll get about 25%, if you’re lucky. The rest will sound like you have throat cancer.
  • Don’t pick a song because it’s the theme tune to your favourite James Bond movie (“Live and Let Die”) and because there’s a cool jazzy version of it in the movie. Cos the karaoke machine will, of course, have the Paul McCartney and Wings version, which is an overwrought crapstravaganza. And what sort of lyric is “If this ever changing world in which we live in makes you give in and cry…”?
  • If you got attitude, it don’t matter if you can’t sing, man. Pick a song that you like and belt it out. If the karaoke machine is half-decent, it’ll add some subtle effects that’ll help even out the crap.
  • If the Deftones “Shove It (My Own Summer)” is on the list, and if you have a pal that you can sing it with, don’t. Cos even though it’s really fun to scream your arse off, your audience will hate you very quickly.
  • If someone picks “Under Pressure”, everyone will think it’s SingStar time and start rapping “Ice Ice Baby”. Bonus points to anyone who can rap the whole thing.
  • Don’t do “Wannabe”. The rapping bit is really fast and the singing is high. The Spice Girls make it look far too easy. (Wot, you mean you actually have to be able to sing properly to be a Spice Girl, etc.)
  • Avoid songs with long instrumental breaks (re “Live and Let Die”). Cos while the soundalike karaoke track is going off on the instrumental, you’ll just end up standing there with the microphone. All attempts to dance will make you look like a dad.
  • Make sure you actually know the song before you attempt to sing it. Nothing is quite as lolz-inducing to your fellow karaokers as you rewriting the first verse as “Rising up, back on the street… Um, I don’t actually know how this bit goes. Uh…”
  • It’s quite fun to do Nsync’s “It’s Gonna Be Me”, cos you get to do all the me’s as “maaaay”. You can flush out all the closeted Nsync fans who’ll be secretly singing along.

Photo courtesy of beguilejapan‘s Flickr stream.

Hold on

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You will recall about a week ago when I was expressing outrage at the predominance of the “Nature’s Best” compilation CD as the hold music of so many New Zealand government departments and corporations.

Well, this inspired Stacezilla to check out was what playing on his company’s phone system. He writes…

Ugh I just checked ours and lo and behold Natures Best indeedy..

You have a unique opportunity to now submit what it SHOULD be replaced by as I am the power that be in our particular Govt Dept.

I’m not convinced by “More Nature” as the idea of purposely subjecting others to any of the following is not my idea of kindness.

“Harmonic Generator” – The Datsuns
“Welcome Home” – Dave Dobbyn
“Clav Dub” – Rhombus
“I Got” – Fast Crew

Ours is run off an ipod hooked into the PABX (don’t ask about format shifting) so it needn’t necessarily be an album, it can be a megamix from a stack of albums we’ll go out and buy.

So really, come up with a list of NZ music with a focus on post 05 (maybe a few classics). Open it to more people\comments if you want.

Join the Panel of Selectors….

So I had a think about this. So far I reckon “Hitchcock” by the Phoenix Foundation would be really good hold music, and maybe something by SJD. I’m not even much of an SJD fan, but his music just seems like it would be nice to listen to while on hold. Hmm.

I was talking ’bout this with my friend Mike, and he suggested some drum ‘n’ bass, but I get the feeling that listening to Concord Dawn while waiting on hold might not work well.

So, given this chance to decide the hold music that gets played on real phone system, what good, recent New Zealand music do you think should be on the list?

Nothing better

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bFM’s music documentary series Inside Track recently looked at the Hamilton music scene. Yay.

It was interesting listening to it, because it sounds like things changed quite dramatically around the time I left Hamilton.

Back in my Hamilton gig-going days (1993 to 1996), there were two main venues – the Wailing Bongo at Waikato University, and the Exchange Tavern on Victoria Street.

The Bong’ could comfortably accommodate popular touring bands (Supergroove, Shihad, various Flying Nun artists), but also worked for local bands. For example, Mobile Stud Unit’s Superstar Extravaganza packed out the Bongo bar with all local bands in 1995.

The Exchange was a much smaller venue, decorated in ye olde Hamiltonia style. It suited local bands more, but I remember Garageland packing the place out in 1995.

There are other venues like the Hillcrest Tavern (more mainstream) and the Downunder Bar (bogans) and Governor’s Tavern. And the vile Outback Inn was rumoured to host bands, but the only music I ever heard there was cheesy European dance music. And Kenny Rodgers’ “The Gambler”.

Anyway, according to the people interviewed on the Inside Track doco, the Waikato Student Union was taken over by a group of right-wingers who promptly sold off the Wailing Bongo and student radio Contact FM. Without a venue and a means of promotion, the scene took a few blows.

But despite this, there are still a whole lot of really good bands coming from Hamilton. In the documentary, Geoff from the Shrugs says that because Hamilton is so small and everyone knows everyone, you can’t be a rock star – everyone will see through it all – so the only thing left is to be a musician.

Another thing that comes up in the documentary is the feeling that some people look back at the live scene in the mide ’90s as a golden age, and wish things were like that now.

But back then, there weren’t always good bands playing. Sometimes all there’d be to see was some lame bogan rock covers band. Sometimes staying at home was a better option than going out.

My main complaint with growing up in or near Hamilton was that it was so boring. There was nothing to do. But the good thing about this is that rather than relying on some vibrant arts and culture scene to entertain me, I had to learn to make my own fun.

I think this is situation is still around in Hamilton, and it’s still one of the reasons people get together and form bands and create music. Because it’s Saturday and there’s nothing better to do.