Friday, November 30, 2007

Mo fun
So, lotsa fellas at my work have been growing mo's for movember, and I've been in on the fun. We had a work party on Wednesday night for Movember (I won best Motown Mo prize, but the overall winner of Movember in our office was dressed as the builder from the Village People). Anyways, here's the evidence.



If you feel like sponsoring me (hey, this photo made you laugh, that's gotta be worth at least a fiver) then go here and enter my rego number 104231. Much appreciated.
Anarchy
Check the video of Steve Jones and John Lydon on their recording for video game Guitar Hero III. Why would they re-record one of their old songs? Jones says it's cos their record company lost their masters. Bonus points - Lydon loses his noodle at a UK press conference for the game launch, classic - Link.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Jeremy Piven goes metal
Funniest video I've seen in ages, language is NSFW tho. Need ya headphones on for it. The Piv gets spotted at an LA nightclub by silly metal band, who get him onstage to play drums for them. Hat tip to LAist.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, November 24
Cookie monster - C is for cookie disco mix (sweet version by Roy Thode)
Nightmares on wax -Flip ya lid
Joy Denalane - Change (inst)
Budos Band - Adeniji
Hypnotic Bass Ensemble- War featJay Z, Freeway (Catchdubs remix)
Papa Levy - Mi god mi king
Dynamics - Rockit
Super beagle - Dust a sound boy
Al Green -I'm glad you're mine
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Stranded in your love (Cool calm Pete remix)
Dubmatix - Jump and twist (steppers mix)
Anthony Red Rose - Tempo
Hot 8 Brass Band - Get up
Meters - Just kissed my baby
Dr Tree - Eugino D
Snake Salvador - When I'm with you
Trecherous Three - Feel the heartbeat
Freddy Cruger - Running from love
Twilight circus feat Luciano - What we gotta do (G Corp remix)
Joe Gibbs - Chapter three
Chubby Digits - Decomposed
Bob Dylan - Most likely you go your way... (Mark Ronson remix)
Aim - Just passin thru
Collie Buddz - Come around (K Salaam remix)
Overproof sound system - Watch what you put inna (G Corp remix)
The joys of the music biz, part 480
Sighted in Alan McGee's column on the Guardian "Dub be good to me: Curious about dub reggae but don't know where to start? Here's five classic albums to get the riddims started."

One of the albums listed is by dub maestro Scientist, called 'Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires'.

"... Rockstar Games licensed the Vampire album for their Grand Theft Auto game, but Scientist received no compensation from the deal and sued the company.

He ultimately lost because he engineered the album but didn't produce it, so isn't considered the owner of his work - setting a dangerous precedent in the world of dub, where engineering is the key to creation. Rockstar Games successfully argued that with the extra profile its game gave the album, Scientist had already been compensated."

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Bullets
• Sounds music stores go into voluntary administration - "The company that operates Sounds and some Blockbuster stores has gone into voluntary administration - the first in New Zealand to do so [under new legislation]. Icon Digital Entertainment runs seven Blockbuster video chain stores and 50 Sounds music stores nationwide." They owe bank and creditors $20m. More here.

ADDED:
sighted at the Dominion Post... "Music store sales have slumped from more than $50 a person each year in 2000 to $34 a head last year. Total music sales topped $200 million in 2001, but were down to $147 million last year. Other retailers blamed reduced prices at The Warehouse, which sells CDs for at least $5 less than prices in music chain stores.

Auckland-based Real Groovy music store manager Chris Hart said competition from The Warehouse was "huge", the discount chain selling CDs for about $22 when the full markup price for a music store was about $35."

• Congratulations to Moana Maniapoto, one of five winners of $50,000 Arts Foundation awards. Link.


• Late last year, Robyn predicted on my 2006 round-up that "To help steer people back to albums, I reckon we’ll see more concept albums, with bands (and record companies) trying to convince us that all the album tracks are equally important, and, like, we must respect their artistic vision and go on a musical journey."
Turns out, Jermaine Dupri thinks she has a point, and mouths off about it at Huffington Post, in reference to the new Jay Z album, only sold as a complete album, no single track downloads allowed. Robyns 's reaction? "You know who needs to shut up? Jermaine Dupri needs to shut up." Read it here.
Or, as Idolator puts it... "Jermaine Dupri Is Willing To Screw You Over For The Sake Of A Good Album" More here.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Hot 8
...After the city tripled the fees for second-line parades, a consortium of Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs took the matter to federal court. Last month, police arrested two brass-band musicians for parading without a permit during a funeral procession, setting off new controversy over a time-honored tradition.

"We rose out of water and debris to lead the way back to the life that we love," said [band leader] Pete at a recent public forum on such matters. "It's not just a party, it's our life. We can sugarcoat it all kinds of ways, but the city looks at us as uncivilized. And that's why they try to confine us."

Hot 8 Brass Band interview at Village Voice. Great reading for fans of New Orleans music.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, November 17
Hypnotic brass ensemble - Balicky bon
Daktaris - Eltsuhg Ibal Lasiti (Mad professor remix)
Yes king - Love revolution dub remix
Junk - 99c strut
DJ Spinna - Abyzmal
Sharon Jones & Dap Kings - Mean man (DJ Spinna remix)
Jr Reid - Bubblers
Ken Boothe & Stranger Cole - Arte belle
Brentford Allstars - Racetrack
Dillinger - Cocaine (G Corp remix)
Little sister - Stanga
Baby huey & babysitters - Hard times
Dr Tree - Eugino D
In deep - Last night a DJ saved my life/DJ delight
Trvea Whateva - Singalong
The bug - Skeng (Kode9 remix)
Skepta - Bumberclaat badman
Joy Denalane - Let it go
Trinidad & Tobago steel allstars - Do your thing
Quincy Jones & Ray Charles - In the heat of the night
Kora - Crazy things
Saul Williams - Scared money
Budos Band - Chicago falcon (Washington Sq Lads/Mark Ronson remix)
Erykah Badu - Honey

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Tryna make me go to rehab...
"
Josh Homme and his Queens Of The Stone Age were recently recruited by an "unnamed Los Angeles drying out clinic" to provide "a light-hearted, intimate performance" for patients. And the clinic was delighted when the Queens accepted, at least up to the moment the band started playing, because apparently no one on staff had ever listened to their music or read a single interview with the mischievous Mr. Homme.

But a spokesman for the band informed NME.COM that when the band opened the show with classic 'Feel Good Hit Of The Summer', staff at the clinic were so unimpressed that they pulled the plugs and had security remove them straight away without negotiation.

The song's lyrics famously run: "Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol... c-c-c-c-c-cocaine". (Via Idolator)

I really really want to see Queens Of The Stone Age live.
Ironically, the song is used by the Colorado Police Department as the soundtrack to their instructional videos demonstrating the consequences of drink driving.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, November 10
Daktaris - Eltsuhg Ibal Lasiti (Mad professor remix)
Dubmatix - Champion sound
Hypnotic brass ensemble - Balicky bon
Joy Denalane - Soweto 76-06
Connie Price & the Keystones & Percee P - International hustler
Kora - Skankenstein
Rhythm & sound feat Jennifer Lara - Queen in my empire
Roots radics - Patrolling
Nicola Conte - Jetsounds (Nu spirit Helsinki rework)
Jay Z - Roc boys
DLT meets the Dutchman - Scratchers revenge
Graham central station - Hair
Mala - Left leg out
Sharon Jones & Dap Kings - Stranded in your love (Cool calm Pete remix)
Sandoz- King dread
Karl Bryan & the afrokats - Money generator
Delory Wilson - I want justice
Dave Nada - Spell on you
Guts - And the living is easy
Mos Def big band & Hypnotic Brass ensemble - Make it funky (live at the Apollo)
Harlem experiment - One for justice
Dr Tree - Eugino D
Guilty Simpson - Make it fast
Trip to the moon - Hamba humito
Fatboy Slim - Radioactivity
Budos Band - Chicago falcon (Washington Sq Lads/Mark Ronson remix)
Tony Matterhorn etc - Genki desu ka

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Daptone remixed
Daptone Records get remixed by Mark Ronson, Kenny Dope, Hank Shocklee, DJ Spinna and more - get it here! (Hat tip to Different Kitchen)
ADDED Heres the Mad Professor remixing the Daktaris. Damn!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Day ripper
Bunch of cool Beatles covers over here, at AM/FM/PM. Aretha does Elenor Rigby, Chaka does We can work it out, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, lots more. Listen up, kids.

And if you haven't had the misfortune/good fortune to hear the ubiquitous Mr Chris Knox ditty for the Labour Party, listen to it here. Called Way Better, the chorus is "it's a better way with Labour..." sang over and over relentlessly, but thanks to Knox's kiwi pronounciation, it sounds like he's singing 'theres a bitter way with Labour', endlessly amusing. Just me then? Righto.

ADDED: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble live from Oct 29, covering Moments In Love by Art of Noise. Grab it!

Friday, November 02, 2007

Weekend reading
A couple of interesting articles from the Village Voice for ya... New York musician Victor Axelrod (aka Ticklah, Antibalas, Easy Allstars) rehearses for the launch of his new album... LINK

"Victor Axelrod, the thirtysomething keyboardist, arranger, and engineer who creates reggae music under the handle Ticklah, decides to open the sidewalk grates early. His aptly named Don't Trip studio is tucked beneath a Brooklyn sidewalk in a desolate section of Gowanus: Washing machines double as amp stands, keyboards are stacked like pancakes, drums are stuffed in corners, and a large mixing console holds court among egg crates and pegboards full of patch cords..."

excellent backgrounder on Wax Poetics magazine, on the launch of their new anthology... LINK...

"Reading Wax Poetics, Brooklyn's glossy, reverent, visually immaculate zine dedicated to funk, soul, hip-hop, and the other obsessions of crate-diggers worldwide, is enough to make you wish neither compact discs nor the Internet had ever been invented. That vinyl sounds better is debatable; that vinyl looks better is undeniable. Compared to the woeful postcard dimensions of CD insert art and the laughable thumbnails we now lug around on our iPods, beholding an album cover nowadays, huge and warm and bright and colorful and evocative, is like staring into the face of God..."

"...The best writing in Wax Poetics concerns the collector just as much as the collected: [take] Anthology highlight "Make Checks Payable to Charles Mingus," written by Karl Hagstrom Miller and reprinted from issue no. 1, details the ultimately failed efforts Mingus made to establish his own mail-order record label. As rarely discussed history, it's fascinating, but it's bookended by the surprisingly affecting saga of Karl himself discovering three of those releases in a junk shop in Catskill, New York. He's clear-eyed about his role as a cultural scavenger ("Desperation is the friend of the record collector. Hipness depends on finding a population aggrieved enough to produce good music, suddenly pushed to the point of parting with it") and honest about when money trumps nostalgia: The piece ends when Karl sells all three exorbitantly priced records and buys a laptop..."
Weekend happenings
"The next occurrence of the ever-popular Record Collectors Fair is set for Saturday November 3 and will take place at 1 McDonald St, Morningside.
New rebuilt turntables such as Garrard 301 and 401's, Thorens and more will be available. A brand new music system with amplifier, speakers and turntable will also be there for all to listen to. Vinyl will be the only format played.

There will be 21 stall holders onsite, each selling a wide range of music (including Murray Cammick, who will be selling a swag of great funk and soul records), . Spot prizes will be given throughout the day, so keeping hold of your entry ticket is strongly advised! A record cleaning device will also be demonstrated.

Trade Tech, the company specialising in spare parts for any electronic device, will also be on hand, with food and drink being available as always.

The fair is open to the public from 10am to 3pm."


Konono International Ukulele Festival

On Saturday 3rd November, FREE, yes FREE, the Kapono NZ Ukulele Festival will be held in the grounds of Mt Roskill Intermediate School. myspace page, link.

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra will be making the journey up to play, alongside an amazing array of local and international ukuleleists including James Hill from Canada, Azo Bell from Australia and the incredible Sione 'Aleki from Tonga - he plays the uke with his feet whilst rolling on the floor. AND a whole bunch of school kids as the Kiwileles Combined Schools Orchestra.

The fest is from 9.30am - 4.30pm and it's FREE - there'll be stalls and activities and heaps for kids to do, and most of all music.

ALSO Stay tuned for an evening gig featuring the cream of the daytime acts in a more sound-friendly environment AND rumours of a special inner-city late late late show by the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (at the Classic Comedy Bar). See you there!"