Don't dream - it's over
Neil Finn is pissed. No, not just cos he got bottled at Coachella. From NZ Herald. [saw this online first - just saw the print version -didn't realise it was front page news.]

"It sort of makes me sick to see Helen Clark getting up at the music awards and taking the bows," Neil Finn says in an interview with Real Groove [May edition].

"Being lauded by the music industry because everyone's getting a handout. It's like New Zealand music is taking over the world and it's all because of Helen.

"I think there is a tendency in New Zealand at the moment, because of NZ on Air dishing out large sums of money, for people to have unreal expectations for what New Zealand music can achieve overseas or is actually achieving.

"I think it would be unrealistic for New Zealanders to expect that more than one or two things at a time would even get attention. But there's a perception that is somewhat hype-generated at the moment that all this music's going out and making a big splash, and it's really not."

... and welcome to NZ Music Month. Comments? Thoughts?

ADDED: NZ Herald readers respond to Neil Finn here.

ScrapHouse
[Just found this - I wrote it in sept last year and forgot to publish it. Doh.
It never fails to amaze me how much good stuff we throw away - did I ever tell you about the time I found an Apple iMac in the trash? - so here's the ultimate recycling gig.]

"Can a beautiful house be built and furnished using only scrap, salvage and trash? A San Francisco team took on the challenge to find out. In six weeks they designed, built and furnished an entire house using nothing new. ScrapHouse was built as part of UN World Environment Day in June 2005 and was conceived by Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Anna Fitch of Building 39 Films."
Anna says she got the idea after spending some time at the dump, noticing all the things we throw away, and wondered if you could build and furnish an entire house from scrap. And the answer is yes.

Peter Hyoguchi is the co-founder of a Berkeley-based video production company, minidocs, and has directed over 50 short films for TurnHere.

ScrapHouse video here. More photos here.

SFGate article here.

http://www.scraphouse.org/materials

More Coachella...
- Robots' innards: A lot more interesting than Scarlett Johansson. [Boing Boing]
- Bjork gets political. [eBlips]
- Getting sick in the desert: A first-hand account. [skeet on mischa]
- The fifteen-minute clock on this festival may very well be at 14:59. [Teddy & Moo's Celebrity Pictures And Gossip]
- How do Coachella attendees afford their rock and roll lifestyle, anyway? [Useless Things]

and go read "Crowded House's set sounds like it played host to every "Hey, Asshole!" submission we've received, ever". [Because Lisa Said So] snip...

"In what SHOULD have been a great exciting performance, was marred right from the start. From the Idiot in the control room who misspelled their name. Hello? CROWED HOUSE? To the brain dead Asshole who dared to have the nerve to throw & actually hit Neil Finn in the chest w/ a water bottle... At one point, the jerks in the first 10+ rows were chanting "Rage" over & over, for Rage Against the Machine...."

Maybe not such a great gig for the big comeback, aye Neil?

ADDED - Brooklyn Vegan has a video clip of their warm-up gig, with Neil joking about their playing slot for Coachella, and a nice RATM impersonation from Nick Seymour - BV reports that Neil's bottling went like this... "Hey now, Hey now...BAM...Don't Dream it's over....". Ouch. He handled it well though - looked a little flustered, changed the words of the song to say he was unaffected, told the thrower it was a good shot, and said "they're coming, they're coming" to the many people chanting "RAGE."



via Popcandy...

"Rock critic Lester Bangs died 25 years ago [yesterday]. He remains an essential figure in journalism and rock 'n' roll, and his work feels as passionate and electrifying now as it did when it was published.

The Chicago Sun-Times offers this appreciation of Bangs, calling him "a great thinker and a philosopher." PopMatters delivers an open letter to the critic, saying, "You know full well that the world went right down the toilet as soon as you disembarked the tour bus."

For a trip down memory lane, read what Richard Hell had to say about Bangs in 2003 or Jim DeRogatis' interview with Bangs shortly before he died. (DeRogatis is the author of Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic.)

As for original writing, tons of stuff can be found on Rock's Back Pages if you join the site. Here's a link to Bangs' thoughts on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and his interview with Brian Eno. Of course, you can also catch Philip Seymour Hoffman's interpretation of Bangs in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous.

Just like Scarlett
Jesus and Mary Chain are playing at Coachella music fest in the States, Scott Kara from NZ Herald is blogging it. Scarlett Johansson sang backup during "Just Like Honey" for JAMC... more pics here.

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, April 28
James Brown - Blind man can see it
Grant Green - I don't want nobody to give me nothing...
Jacksons - ABC (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra rework)
The Dynamics - Miss you
Mighty Two - Peeping tom
Stephen Marley - Traffic jam
Keith Mansfield - Crash course (Wai wan remix)
Breakestra - Family rap
JB's - The grunt
SOS Band - Just be good to me
Skuff -The Jamaicans vs the good foot
Courtney Melody and Buster Rhymes - Dangerous bad boy (Flex edit)
Maxwell implosion - Upper left hand corner of the sky
Sly and Family Stone - Smilin'
Bronx river prkway - La valla
Bamboos - Tighten up
Tanya Stephens - Need you tonight
Keith Lawrence - Bad bwoy skank
Romanowski - Days and daze
Ripple - I don't know what it is...
General Levy - The wig (Chaos mix)
Mr Vegas - Heads high
Dawn Penn - To sir with love
Gary Clail - Privatise the air Pt1
Jungle bro and Ernest Ranglin - Funky Bond st (Flex edit)
Yabby You - Conquering lion (Smith and Mighty remix)

best text I got all morning, from one keen listener... "Dope tunes man. You got me lighting up already". Nice.


Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, April 21
Curtis Mayfield - Right on for the darkness
Keith Lawrence - Whoa whoa
Nightmares on wax - The sweetest
Phillis Dillion - Rocksteady
Karl Bryan and the afrokats - Money generator
Stevie Wonder -Masterblaster (dub)
Al Green - Love and happiness (Shoes edit)
Shinehead - Raggamuffin
Turbulence - Ethiopia awakes
Lalo Schifrin - Bullitt (Black Dog remix)
Wiseguys - Too easy
Migs and Jelly - Dub selecta
Maceo and the Macks - Cross the tracks
Butch Cassidy Sound System - Rockers galore
Jungle bro and Ernest Ranglin - Funky Bond st (Flex edit)
Schoolly D and Joe Delia - The player (Ganja Kru remix)
Rob Base - Turn it out (go Base) Meltdown mix
DJ Smash - Light em up
Graham cnetral station -The jam
Society's bag - Let it crawl
Jackie Mittoo - Ska-culation
Scientist - Pick up the dub
Romanowski - The train story
El Chicano - Viva tirado
Love unlimited orchestra - Strange games and things
Stargard - Which way is up?
Fatback band - Yum yum
The Dynamics -90% of me is you