Dub dot dash

Wellington crossdresser masquerades as librarian, wins award.
So, it turns out that Natalie Biz (Bizgirl) is in fact a he. "James" aka "Noizyboy" turned up to take credit for said blog at the Netguide Awards on friday night, when it won best personal blog. What a genius media hoax. I haven't laughed that hard since the middle of last week. Top work, "James" or whoever you are.
Netguide had an expert judge the local blogs, and she had some comments on all the finalists, including a major diss aimed at Public Address; "... what's it about? Or does it matter? They are all good writers with important stuff to say ... clearly the movers and shakers of New Zealand's blogosphere. A little intimidating though." She didn't like David Farrar's Kiwiblog either, but he wasn't fazed. "I think it is hilarious that Natalie is actually James Guthrie of Noizyblog. Makes me feel like Paul Henry when he lost Wairarapa to Georgina Beyer :-) "
The Scavengers played on the weekend - I missed em, choosing Roots Foundation instead, which was a mighty fine night of reggae and dub , tho the poor ol PA at Safari Lounge wasn't up to the task of pumping out some serious bass - shame. Simon Grigg went along to see the Scavs - he was closely involved in the early punk scene in AK, with his record label Propellor, and his association with Suburban Reps.
"... The show itself...short (12 3 minute songs), anthem filled (I was touched to be the only person to get a song dedicated to them), and loud (vastly better sound than I've ever heard the Scavs...we used to throw the vocals thru the guitar amp back then)..."
I suspect the song that was dedicated to Simon was "Born to Bullshit" which got a belated release as a single a few years back, with Simon's photo on the cover, with a black strip tastefully pasted across his eyes to give him some vague level of anonymity. Touching.
Simon also noted that Dion from the D4 did a fine job of filling in for absent bassist Brendan Perry, who is otherwise engaged in prepping a tour with Dead Can Dance from a former church in Ireland (his home and recording studio), where he also runs samba workshops for the locals. Speaking of the D4, check out this MP3 from a group with the same name, from back in the 80s (warning: file is huge, 16MB). from Stickershock.

I caught the tail end of Flashbacks last night on C4, a special looking at a bunch of old Flying Nun vids in honour of the new FNun DVD 'Second season' that's just come out. James Coleman's guests were Dave Yetton (JPSE, Stereobus) and Chris Knox, who rubbed jelly into his arms and face towards the end of the show, while Coleman was trying to intro the next vid without laughing. The jelly was on set as a tribute to Superettes Killer Clown video which features a party with much jelly and other party food. Knox called in "conditioning jelly", and then was surprised when told that you could eat it - "oh really?" Classic Knox antics, reduced Coleman to uncontrollable laughter.

One of the final clips was Bike's "Welcome to my world" vid (directed by Jonathan King), which I worked on as a production assistant. The vid features a family going on holiday, towing a caravan where Bike are playing inside, while they drive down the road. Anyways, my job involved driving back to town to pick up Shayne Carter, who played a policeman in the vid, then drive him back out to Maraeti, about a 2 hr round trip. He wasn't very talkative on the way out (too early in the AM for him?), but on the way back to town after his cameo, we got talking , and ended up raving about Sly and the Family Stone - Shayne had just scored the Sly box set for a bargain at Real Groovy. I remember thinking that was real cool, as it marked him out as a fan.
UPDATE: Watch out for the Second FNun Pub Quiz, Wednesday Nov 24, 8pm at the King's Arms - free! More info here.




RIP Russell Jones
AKA ODB, Ol Dirty Bastard, MC with the Wu Tang Clan. Died in the recording studio on saturday after complaining of chest pains. Dude was 35. Sad news. Last time I heard from this cat was earlier this year, after he'd signed to Rocafella Records, and dropped an exclusive preview of his latest recording, a duet with Macy Grey, the Kiki Dee/Elton John clunker 'Don't go breakin my heart'. You can still hear it over here. He had skills, but he aint no Elton. Here's a 2002 interview with him: Portrait of the artist in jail.


Check out Reinventing Elvis: The American Sound Studio Sessions. It's a fascinating insight behind the sessions that delivered In the Ghetto and Suspicious Minds, produced by former Stax alumni Chips Moman. It aslo reveals how Elvis was tied to his publishing company, who sound like a bunch of money-hungry evil little men. They hound Chips to give up some of the publishing on In the Ghetto, which belongs to him, and he is not impressed. His response? "Gentlemen, I thought we were here to cut some hit records. Now if that's not the case, let me tell you what you can do. You can take your fucking tapes, and you and your whole group can get the hell out of here. Don't ask me for something that belongs to me. I'm not going to give it to you."