The Hills Are Alive

To quote Julie Andrews (and why not, when I was growing up, she was seen by the world at large as the epitome of all things good and decent, that is, until she took her top off in some piece of fluff some years later and willingly destroyed that pre-conception...but then again, those of us who knew where the dirty words were in “TSOM” were never fooled anyway)..lets start at the very beginning…

A few weeks back I opened the post to a promo copy of the new Kraftwerk live album “Minimum-Maximum”. These things sometimes turn up in the mail sometimes, courtesy of a promo person somewhere and obviously I’m not one to look a gift horse in the….I’m pretty grateful. Especially since its Kraftwerk and I’m a fan and a bit of completist. But, that aside, I love and need new music and it helps to satiate a craving. The album had a tracklisting and not much more on the sleeve, but it did the trick. You would imagine that the King Klang crew would sound petty much the same live or studio. But the live versions added a completely new raw spirit to the, perhaps, overly familiar soundscapes that are “Trans Europe Express”, “Autobahn” and the rest and, with a ton of paperwork to do in May, it became the late night, rather loud, soundtrack to several GST returns and a lot of writing before I left the country.

As the album was due for release early June, I passed on the promo copy to a mate before I left NZ and, like a dutiful consumer, picked up a “proper” EMI release from the HMV in Singapore’s Orchard Rd. It came, complete, with the, now standard, EMI suicide note (the copy protection warning) on the back sleeve. But I ignored it…generally it causes no problem, although I’ve noticed more and more that EMI discs are a bit hit and miss on car players, which can be a bugger.

But can I get the thing to play on the laptop (which is a primary audio source right now)… nope. It simply refuses to recognise the disc as an audio CD and keep on asking me if I’d like it formatted. I’m sure there is way around, and I know this has gone through the courts before, but it’s not affected me to date (apart from some David Bowie album trying to install a player without asking...an EMI Trojan…actually I’d forgotten about that until this minute) and I really can’t see why, having bought a legitimate delivery device for audio, I should have to jump hoops to use the bloody thing. The record companies’ wonder why the consumer is pissed off….it’s not rocket science.

So….I downloaded the damn thing. It wasn’t hard to find a decent copy on a peer to peer site and down it came, courtesy of the free very high speed hotel broadband. And, more to the point, as a music consumer (read “addict”) I shall never buy another EMI CD “Copy Protected”, or any other “protected” at any time in the future. Why should I? They are not fit for the purpose they’re being sold for. Yep, I know there is a warning on the back but it’s rather beside the point to expect consumers to read small print (which in my case was covered by a price sticker anyway) when only an idiot assumes that laptops are not, in 2005, a primary playing device for compact discs. Quite frankly, while a company like EMI operates with such blatant disregard for its customer, they deserve to die.

The other disc I bought at the same time, Common’s “Be” (the Kanye West album when there isn’t a new Kanye West album…dunno if it’s quite the album 2002’s “Electric Circus” is, then again, few albums are, but I’m playing it to death, especially “The Food” and “They Say”) plays perfectly. And two other people I know have bought it after hearing it via me...the free live DVD helps. Unlike EMI, who have broken retail rule number one…don’t put barriers in the way of selling…Universal have added an incentive which cost them little.

On a similar note the editorial in Monday’s International Herald Tribune was of some interest. I read it as I was sitting on a Singapore Airlines flight with, I would guess, over a hundred, mostly blockbuster, albums available on the inflight system, none of which interested me in the slightest, but I’d hazard I’m not general target. Facing The Music came out on the occasion of US music retail’s “Big Tuesday” last week, with new releases from The Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay and The White Stripes all big acts with massive sales potential and a huge potential upside for traditional retail, being banged out at the same time. Figures for 2005 predictably show an ongoing slide in sales….down 7% this year on last. It muses about the depression after the flop of the Warner Music IPO and the ongoing tendency of the majors on blame their woes, wrongly, on digital piracy, rather than looking a little closer to home. At the blockbuster mentality that can be traced back to the mid to late 70’s in the US (and ironically a mentality that Warner Music, and the likes of David Geffen and the other moguls who dominated the US industry over the past 20 years helped invent with the likes of The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac and the other bloated “Big” acts who mattered more than the lesser signings) that has eventually eaten away at the industry.

But as the piece correctly says:

These days there are more musicians and bands than there have ever been. And there are plenty of music buying fans. Together they are discovering alternative means of connecting with each other.

But to me, musing away over here in South East Asia, the revolution that we are seeing right here, right now (good name for a song that…) goes back to about 1976, to the beginnings of the rise of the post punk indie labels, specifically in the UK…labels like Stiff, Chiswick, and more precisely the slightly more anarchic Rough Trade and Factory. Sure, there have always been independent labels, but pre-punk these were, more or less, little labels that wanted to be majors...in the way that a company like Mercury or Capitol came out of the forties aspiring to be RCA, or A&M and Island wanted to be Capitol in the sixties. But the punk thing was different. It was about taking control away from these people, handing it back to those who created (whether it be the musicians or the producers or the smart business whiz who often is just as much a part of the creative process as the guy who writes the song). Andrew Oldham’s Immediate was a prototype as was Lieber & Stoller’s label, Red Bird. But punk, and later electronic music, meant that, for the first time the musical ethos matched the label ethos. And it took the digital revolution to bring this ethic to full fruition...to bring us to where we are now, where the business model that popular music has survived on since about 1920 has largely been superseded. And no number of blockbusters will change than……

It 1976 has any legacy, I guess this may be it….

Hey, and talking of the rise of indie music…Scribe’s “Crusader” is, after a year or so, top twenty in the Australian album charts which is pretty damn impressive. I'd love to see it trickle around the world, country by country in the way that an indie record like this potentially can

Dance, dance, dance to the Radio

What the hell is it about godzone….eat eat eat eat eat. The obsession with eating endlessly even when you’re not hungry is something I’ve only encountered in New Zealand and the USA. It scares the living daylights out of me and it does me no favours whatsoever. I’m one of those unfortunate people who spend weeks battling to deal to that one steak and cheese pie that I succumbed to in a moment of pathetic weakness (the ones in the bakery next to Glengarry in Ponsonby Road are especially good by the way), only to lose the battle in another momentary lapse. I despise beyond reason people like my bro Peter Urlich (we figured out today we’ve been close friends for thirty years this month..not bad, so I don’t really despise him at all, quite the opposite), whom I had Yum Char with today; he can eat inhuman amounts of anything, washing it down with lager, with no noticeable effect. I like the Asian way of one decent meal and then a browsing, if and when required across the day. It makes perfect sense..de-bloating, and a succession of flavours.

All this, really, is just self flagellation and complete nonsense, as I’ve just got in from a massive gorging, with the associated guilt, from our hidden secret, KK Malaysian in Greenlane. At least, it was our secret, until bloody Metro (which has, to change the subject completely, a must read article about Iraq in the current issue) made it “hot”, and ruined it. Happily we’ve been going there so long, enjoying the food prepared with such obvious soul and love, that we’ve jumped to VIP status, and we can still get a table in this Formica tabled shoebox at whim…so ha! There is nothing quite as satisfying as pushing past the food Mafioso with a knowing look and declining the menu as we know what we want already. Yep, its puerile but I don’t care at all….

So…nineteen years.

I love doing radio. Its a massive buzz. It stands head and shoulders above TV when it’s done well (and makes a soul shudder when its not, as, unfortunately, so much NZ radio is not). Radio can be a direct line to the spirit and has a one on one relationship with the listener when it aspires to be more than a mindless opiate. The car...that’s where I listen to radio. I spend a lot of time in the car...like the three hour return trip from the city to Royal Oak today. I guess Auckland and traffic congestion are pretty much one and the same thing these days and, to be honest, I don’t mind a bit and I get a little pissed off when I get somewhere before the tune ends. I play vinyl, CD & digital bits at home and in the office, but the car is for radio. I like it loud…even radio based on talk, and I canter through the pre-sets: B for the Wire and the intelligent discourse, but not so much the music; George for assorted shows, especially the Sunday shows and Saturday mornings, Outerdrive and a bit of Churchill noise; the BBC and National Radio for the joy of being spoken to like a thinking adult and sheer information overload; Nui & Flava for the humour and the soul; Base, just because it sounds warm and has the best breakfast show on the planet….

Actually I did my first radio show more than nineteen years ago. Back in 76, as a young lad, I approached Radio B (or Radio Bosom as it was known for some odd reason back then..you have to wonder about those student wags with their excellent sense of humour…the sort of people who turned in Murray McCulley) about a show. Whoever was programming then…it wasn’t much of a job as they only broadcast in the University area …told me I was on and threw me into the on-air studio at midday with virtually no instruction, on my own. For some reason I freaked and found the longest track I could find, Emerson Lake & Palmer’s gruesome live take of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at a Exhibition”, so as to fill my hour with minimum number of voice breaks (I don’t think I spoke once truth be known). I was terrified and went from prog rock hell into a Santana track which took the whole side of a bloated multi disc live album called Lotus. I wasn’t asked back. I guess I was perceived as simply latent talent…

I did more than a few shows in the early eighties as a guest specialist…Elvis Costello b sides and the like, but it was frustration that Roger Perry and I felt which led the two of us to approach bFm to do a regular dance based show in ’86. Nobody at all was playing the stuff we liked on the radio…that funky club stuff, that hip hop, that garage and funk-punk. And, to be honest, B was less than keen too. Murray Cammick had the killer soul show, Land Of The Good Groove, but that was purist soul...not the sort of stuff we wanted to play. Eventually we managed to find an ally in Lisa Van der Arde and were given a midday Saturday slot. So was born Asylum FM. The relationship was fairly symbiotic...we played in return for free ads for our club and it worked well enough for a while, until the all-disco-sucks regime moved us sideways in 87. The station’s magazine completely ignored us...and dance culture, until they turned up with a full page piece that year accusing our club, The Asylum, of quiet racism because we, allegedly, had a bunch of white kids dancing to black music to the exclusion of brown kids. It’s the only time in my life I’ve been accused of racism, something I know I’m not guilty of, and it was doubly offensive since we had a blatantly open door policy and were known for our happily mixed crowds, the first in Auckland, something I’m fairly proud of. Roger and I quit B as a result but never said anything beyond that. I’m not one to let something fester but 18 years on, I’d like to say…fuck you..

There, off the chest, thank god…. (just to clarify..my comments seem to have caused some offense to Mark Tierney but should be put in context..they relate to this particular incident only. Mark was a pioneering force in recorded NZ electronica and a person I hold, otherwise in high regard...sorry Mark).

Mark Phillips, the unhailed founding father of Aucklandclublife, and I, did a show in 88. The Playground. Without Mark none of this stuff would exist, and I wish to hell he didn't live in Sydney so I could see more of him.....

I guess I should also apologise to Nick D’Angelo for hijacking the Beats Per Minute show in 1989. It was his name, but I convinced B management I could do it better. Sorry Mr Laan. I did the BPM show for 13 years. 1989-92 by myself, 92-95 with Rob Salmon, 1995-2002 with Greg Churchill and it was mostly a fantastic experience. It was a strange feeling for a while. It was the only dancefloor show in Auckland and we had to play a huge variety of stuff. For the first few years, we played hip-hop for the first hour (in 2005 its hard to believe that we were the only radio outlet for the genre on the air) followed by our top five at nine..really, I guess, the Auckland dance chart, then an hour of house. Later, we dropped the hip hop, and added a techno spot with Simon Flower and friends giving us 15 minutes of purist electronics. Our guests included the cream of the touring djs, with Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May (three times), Derrick Carter (twice), Andy Weatherall, Justin Robertson, Giles Peterson, Norman Jay, Elliot Eastwick, Juan Atkins, Sneak, Ashley Beedle, Phil Asher, Paul Oakenfold, Norman Jay, Lenny Dee and even Judge Jules, plus many more, doing shows. For years, bFm mostly ignored us. It wasn’t real music..it was a token, a novelty, late at night. Even when the station ran its own dance parties we weren’t asked to contribute or be involved. Odd really….

The arrival of George really removed the need for the BPM show...and, any way you look at it, 13 years was enough….

George also gave me the freedom to move away from what Greg & I used to call the fascism of the dancefloor. We’d painted ourselves into a corner where we were limited by having to play new releases and I wouldn’t have carried on doing radio if I was limited by that.

So, there you go. As I said, I love doing radio, and it’s going to be quite a tear not to be preparing the show the night before, hunting out new music and pre-programming in my head, as I’ve done for almost two decades.

Hey Ho…onwards..

Taking of which…I love the FK remixes of LCD’s “Disco Inflitrator”…big big record, both sides. See, its in the blood. Oh, and his new 10” with the mighty U-Roy..and the new Tussle on Rong, which come complete with a killer B side from Corey Black. Or the Soul Jazz acid comp, which is really the bomb. I own god knows how many old acid records from this era, including originals of a good half of this thing, but it still sounds fresh and revolutionary...and after 20 odd years, its hard to ask more than that….

I think this weaning off the music is a complete failure already….

Off to Singapore in the morning…the food, the food, the food!

Extended Play 1 June (the final one) on George self indulgent as can be today but what the hell, its the last one for a while

Ian Dury & The Blockheads-Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt 3 (12”)-Stiff-1979 West Street Mob-Breakdance-Electric Boogie-Sugarhill-1983 Willie Colon-Set Fire to Me (Latin Jazzbo Version)-A&M-1986 Roach Motel-Wild Luv-JBO-1994 Urban Soul-Alright (Original vox)-Polar-1990 Sterling Void-Alright (House Mix)-DJ International-1987 Plantlife-Why’d You Call Me-Gut-2004 Lil Louis-You Called Me-Diamond-1990 Houz Neegroz-What is House Music-Nu Groove-1992 Shay Jones-Are You Gonna Be There (House mix)-ID-1991 Raze-Break for Love-Grove St-1988 Phuturescope-What is House Music-Emotive-1994 Kraftwerk-Numbers (Live)-King Klang-2005 Inner City-Hallelujah (Leftfield High on Vocal mix)-Ten-1992 Rhythim is Rhythim-Strings of Life (Carl Craig mix)-Transmat-1994 U Roy & Francois K-Rootsman-Deepspace-2005 Saint Etienne-Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Ken Lou dub)-Warner -1991 Bam Bam-Give It to me-Westbrook-1988 Kenny “Jamin” Jason & Fast Eddie-Can U Dance-DJ International-1987 Tyree-Acid Over (Matey mix)-DJ International-1988 Paul Rutherford-Get Real (Happy House mix)-4^th & Broadway-1988 Seven Grand Housing Authority-The Question-Simply Soul-1993 Disco Evangalists-De Niro`-Black Sunshine-1993 Ralph Falcon-Every Now and Then-Miami Soul-1992 Underground Solution-Luv Dancin (Extended Vocal)-Strictly Rhythm-1991 Doug Lazy-Let It Roll-Grove Street-1988 Hardhouse-Check This Out-Easy Street-1988 Inner City-Ahnongay (Dave Clarke mix)-6X6-1993 Fingers Inc-Mysteries of Love-Jack Trax-1988 BT-Relativity (Carl Craig Urban Affair dub)-Deep Dish-1993 Michael Watford-Holding On-Atlantic-1991 Green Velvet-Flash-Relief-1994 Ron Trent-Altered States (South Side Terrace)-DJAX-1991 Golden Girls-Kinetic (Frank de Wulf mix)-R&S-1993 Fallout-The Morning After-Azuli-1990 The East Village Loft Society-I Wanna Sing Sunshine-Black Sunshine-1994 FK-Hypnodelic-Wave-1996 Dream Team-Love is What we Need (K Dope Soup mix)-Freeze-1994 Paperclip People-The Floor-Planet E-1996 The Beatles-Tomorrow Never Knows-Parlophone-1966

Extended Play 250505 on George

Blackjoy-La Stache-Art of Disco-2005 Plantlife-We Can Get high-Gut-2004 Carol Williams-Can’t Get Away (Club Dub)-Vanguard-1983 Mellow Man Ace-Mentirosa-Capitol-1990 Art of noise-Beatbox-ZTT-1983 Bassomatic-Fascination Rhythm (Claudio Canigga mix)-Guerilla-1990 Cashflow-Party Freak (Latin Rascals Edit)-Atlanta Artists-1986 Alyson Williams-Sleep talk-Def jam-1989 Joe Smooth-I’ll Be There-DJ International-1988 Powerhouse-Kenny’s Jazz (Dope mix)-Nu Groove-1989 Deee Lite-Build The Bridge (Cross Cultural mix)-Elektra-1990 Sandee-Notice Me (club vox)-Fever-1988 Michael Jackson-Can’t Help It (Tangoterje edit)-Gamm-2005 A.Greenman-Sunday Love of Kind-Soul Jazz-2005 Ballistic Brothers-Tuning Up-Soundboy-1997 Papermusic Issue One-Downtime-Paper-1995 Lindstrom-Paaskeyld-Bear Ent-2005 Alden Tyrell-Disco Lunar Module Remix-Clone-2005 Play Paul-Lalaland-Gigolo-2005 Darkman-Annihilating Rhythm (Destruction mix)-Strictly Rhythm-1992 Echo & The Bunnyman-The Killing Moon (12’ version)-Korova-1983 Adamski-NRG-MCA-1990 Kerri Chandler-Coro (dub)-King Street-1999 Designer Music-Good Girls-Planet E-1994 Roxy Music-Angel Eyes (12” mix)-Polydor-1978

This is what the onset of winter does to a soul….

Okay, okay…time to be a miserable old git. After god knows how many decades surrounded by black and silver bits of plastic and having paid for countless record company lunches at Prego out of my purchases, I’m going to indulge in a bit of negative self gratification by naming the artists I unreservedly hate. I’ve paid for the right. Not only financially but by the virtue of having suffered a lot as the likes of Radio bloody Hauraki rotate endlessly much of this guff, or having involuntarily been put in a position where my senses are viciously assaulted by the below acts and records. There are lots of records I don’t like which is neither here nor there. There are lots of records I love too and I get a massive buzz mumbling on about those, as I do. But these are the acts I hate, without rhyme, reason, or logic. I can see nothing that redeems their existence.

Its not all bad..out of some sort of respect for New Zealand Music month, I’ve not mentioned any local acts…..actually I’m lying here..there are no NZ acts that fit the bill. As I mentioned in my last ramble, Wayne Bell and I had tossed around a worst of NZ (which has now been honourably named “Nature’s Worst” by an anonymous commenter below…..a wholly appropriate name as there is a fair crossover between our list and the “Nature’s Best” top 30) but that is song based rather than artist based. Let’s face it, most NZ acts, no matter how lousy they are, don’t get to make enough albums to reach a truly despicable rating, a career F-; although The Narcs came close. And Mi-sex almost qualified but they were more indescribably average than awful, something we in NZ have always celebrated.….These guys just make or made records you simply don’t notice.

This being incredibly negative thing is quite a release actually.

So….to the venom…in no particular order apart from numero uno. I almost can’t bring myself to type……

• Dire Straits: there, I did it. My god I hate Mark fucking Knoffler and his whinging bunch of low rent money-for-nothings. I’ve never been able to figure out the appeal of these soulless, rhythmless, tuneless, faceless twats. Some acts develop a kitsch appeal from a distance. No such luck here. If the National Party were a band, they’d sound like this.
• Sting & The Police: Who in god’s name buys this stuff. Actually no one these days. Universal advertised a Sting album on TV for about a year and still didn’t manage to chart it. Not bad in a country where selling 20 copies nationwide in a week gets you in the top 30 for much of the year. An odious little school teacher with no obvious talent or charisma. No wonder his band mates hated him. Mark Knoffler is his mate……
• Bruce Springsteen: yep, I know he’s an icon and all that and he’s worthy, an artist and the working man’s poet but really, it’s all verbose pretentious crap. The working class man with millions in the bank, a model on each arm and too much to say. He almost redeemed himself when he came out publicly against GWB, but, lets face it, you’d have to have an IQ below that of the average piece of coal to vote for Bush…so, Bruce…sorry, no offence meant, but fuck off…..
• Bob Dylan: Up to about 73, Bob was cool…he was the man. He looked like nothing on the planet, wore shades better than any man ever has and he wrote sharp songs, funny fuck-you sort of stuff, culminating in the peerless “Blood on the Tracks”. But then it all went to shit. He became the nauseous, eccentric voice of an aging generation with nothing to say. Yep, I know he wins Grammies (nuff said) but seriously Bob…shut up.
• Fleetwood Mac: the first albums were okay (the Peter Green era), but, honestly, since then its been a black hole. Actually..more like an endless nasal cavity with a missing membrane. The cocaine addled soundtrack to suburban mediocrity. And now they’re hailed as “Balearic”. Makes you a bit ill really…
• Steely Dan: beautifully played, beautifully produced soulless crap. Miles Davis hated them and that’s good enough for me…
• Supertramp: largely forgotten now which is some sort of justice, but in my youth you couldn’t escape this nasal fluffy shite. The reason why large slabs of the seventies are best forgotten.
• U2: I’m eternally grateful for the massive bar tab these buys ran up at Cause Celebre all those years back, and I have a quiet soft spot for the first album “Boy”. But seriously, since then it’s been a spiralling descent into an ever growing void. To be honest, I feel more sorry than anything for this talentless foursome. Well I would if they didn’t have a higher GDP than most African nations. The sad, desperate, re-launch of the band with every album makes me cringe...remember the “Discotheque” thing…oh dear. Bono is a truly embarrassing self important dickhead and the rest are not a lot better. What sort of grown man calls himself “The Edge”.
• Coldplay: somebody give these guys a spine
• Bob Marley: now I’m in trouble. Bruce might be an icon but Bob is now celestial, especially in a country where the national day and his birthday are one and the same. Big, big fan of the Wailers and Bob up till about ’75 but the corporate machine after that leaves me cold and does my head in. Good gig though…..
• Bootlegs / Remixes: the dance variety where some old rock or soul track gets a four on the floor treatment from some hack like Grant Nelson or such and gets picked up as a floor filler by DJ no-hope. See Fleetwood Mac & Dire Straits above. Also Funky House.

And talking of whingeing: over at The Life of Riley, Myk has a fair old go at Auckland on a return visit and gets a bit of flack for it. Fair enough I reckon. How dare you have an opinion on the country that god chose as the anointed one, bro. What the fuck do you mean, heading overseas for a while, trekking around the planet, widening your horizons and then coming back with an informed view? How dare you criticize..do you like it or not. If not..on yer bike yer pommy wannabe…

To be fair Myk, the drinks are somewhat cheaper than Londontown in my experience..$7.50 is only $1 more than the clubs were charging a decade or so ago, and the ciggies in clubs ban gets my vote. But musically, bang on I reckon...viva la revolution. Fuck knows we need it.

And buy the Fat Freddy’s album Myk…its fairly representative of where independent music is at in NZ right now. It’s not my cuppa…it’s pleasant enough, and its hit a nerve in NZ, but it still sounds to me like a feral (what is it with the feral thing in NZ right now…can musicians no longer afford soap) UB40 infused with a touch of Stevie Wonder, which is better than The Black Seeds, who remind me of UB40 with Nick Kershaw on vocals. But I think its bloody fantastic that it’s number one, with all that implies for independent music and the future of musical expression in this country. You don’t have to like a record to support it..

I don’t think that last line is enough to keep me out of trouble sadly…I guess the dark side may’ve got me

I promise the next post will be really really positive……

so i'd better get to it pronto

The Positive Post

Ummmmm………

Six months into 2005 and its been a pretty astounding year for music. A pretty astounding year for debut albums too, despite the doom and gloom and depression that allegedly is swamping the music industry. The iPod and all the other players, and the ongoing online revolution, both legal and illegal, has given popular music a thriving new currency. So much music being listened to with so much passion by so many people.

I love the Plantlife album and can’t for the life of me see why it’s not the biggest record on the planet right now. The most exciting pop-hop record since the first De La Soul. Funny, sharp and that rare beast..a record that works from beginning to end…over and over and over again. Right now, its album of the year..this week

The Tussle album is a funky (a much abused term sadly) twisted left field disc that evokes the spirit of ESG and Liquid Liquid (Dennis Young is on the record), and the 12” mixes on one of my favourite labels, Rong, are simply the shizz. Big gnarly basslines and banging grooves that twist your spine.

And why are so many good records coming out of Norway. Todd Terje’s Jacko twist is pretty amazing, especially the middle bit and the way it bumps back in with the vocal at about 8 mins (question: if he’s (MJ, not Todd Terje) guilty..and I have my doubts…can we still play his records?), but it’s the Lindstrom and Prins Thomas stuff which does it. The ghost of a thousand amyl fuelled all nighters thirty years ago, mashed with Teutonic electronica and a lot of warm humour. Check out the amazing journey that is the Plague The Kid EP Pt 2, especially “Paaskeyld”.

The new Kraftwerk double live is one of the best soul records I’ve heard in years, and “Numbers” is still one the most sensual four minutes and 28 seconds ever committed to tape…

The fifth season of the Sopranos is out on DVD this month...at bloody last…I missed the second show in the series and pointedly saw no more in it, preferring to wait for the DVD since I’ve not missed an episode to date and wasn’t about to start. I know all the guff about whether each series is as good and the last and all that, but, really, who gives a monkey’s…it’s the Sopranos…the best TV to come out of the US small screen vacuum since Twin Peaks.

It’s a bit like Star Wars..is it as good as the last one..isn’t it cool to pretend you don’t care about Lucas….you’re above that thing. Bullshit...every man, woman and child on the planet, from the third world (who already have it on pirate DVD) to the first, is gagging to see Anakin turn to the Dark Side (good on him I say..that Jedi Council would turn anyone….and….when you think about it...as I do, with a bit of help from my Force obsessed ten year old…the ancient prophecy was right...Anakin was the chosen one (of course you care)...it was Darth who tossed the Emperor over the edge in “Return of..” (does anyone else think the new pope..the Hitler Youth one..looks like the Emperor?)). “Sith”…I loved it. Romeo and Juliet on an X-Wing.

This week there are two NZ pop singles in the Australian top thirty and an album in the top 30..this has never happened before. It really makes Don Brash's mumbling on about hip hop tours look like the silly out of touch ramblings of an old man that they are. I thought Don was supposed to be an economist...I wonder what sort of tax return to NZ this success will bring?

And, after close to a decade, Alan Jansson and Paul Fuemana started work on a new OMC album this week. Any act (and these two were OMC) that sells four million records deserves the right to make a second album. It just took this long to get rid of the baggage……

On a completely different note, but positive in a sad way…wasn’t George Galloway good? The best first line ever in DC:

“Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.”

He completely nailed his inquisitors, so much so, that they've pulled the testimony off the Congressional website. But you can find it here. It was just bang, bang, bang, one after another and they couldn’t stop him..live on nationwide US TV. Home truth after home truth..the sort of thing that no-one on Capitol Hill has ever had the guts to say. 100,000 plus dead and getting worse by the day. One of history’s great fuckups, and those sitting in judgement are totally complicit.