Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: In the Music

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  • Joe Wylie,

    Probably not quite the ambience you're after, but twiglets and lights, all at the same time:

    http://www.crowdstorm.com/Twig_Lamps+1836.html

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Lee Wilkinson,

    What did Bill do bandwise after The Builders and Vacuum?
    Those bands always laid down a serious groove, must have seem them in heaps of Hall gigs around ChCh

    Whangarei Heads • Since Nov 2006 • 45 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    I thought that James Duncan's solo set was a bit, shall we say, experimental? I suppose some people like that type of thing...

    SJD was pretty good though.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I thought that James Duncan's solo set was a bit, shall we say, experimental? I suppose some people like that type of thing...

    SJD was pretty good though.

    You were there too? I met Heather Gaye after the gig.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • JLM,

    Listening to SJD on Natrad as I type.

    Judy Martin's southern sl… • Since Apr 2007 • 241 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    I met Heather Gaye after the gig.

    Ha, bit of a shake-n-run.

    I thought the sound was a bit off, all the cool little details got kinda mashed in together.

    LOVE the new songs though. The new album's like a Greatest Hits, except with greatest hits that noone's heard. About half I can even pick the albums they would've been on.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • gondwanan,

    Another good example of this is Steve Abel's band ... Geoff Maddok, Gareth Thomas, Mike Hall, Milan Borich. In both cases its the particular genius of the songwriter that draws in such talent I think http://www.abelsong.com/

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 7 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    ...the rise and rise of the kiwi supergroup, I guess.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    I was. Didn't see you, but maybe you don't look like your byline photo!

    Was that Chris Knox getting down at the front - or just someone who looks a bit like him?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Much weirder: Prince gives away his new album: attached to the front of the Mail on Sunday.

    Weird, as in the giveaway itself - or that it's hard to imagine much of an overlap between his fanbase and the stereotypical Mail reader?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Weird, as in the giveaway itself - or that it's hard to imagine much of an overlap between his fanbase and the stereotypical Mail reader?

    More the latter.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    Weird, as in the giveaway itself - or that it's hard to imagine much of an overlap between his fanbase and the stereotypical Mail reader?

    More the latter.

    'Tis method in his madness! Did anyone know he had a new album out before the world wide publicity about the giveaway?

    What would Jesus do ?

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    Weird, as in the giveaway itself - or that it's hard to imagine much of an overlap between his fanbase and the stereotypical Mail reader?

    More the latter.

    It's a great concept, I look forward to Cannibal Corpse giving away their new album in the Financial Times.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    You mean we'll be forced to buy the Financial Times? erg!

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    'Tis method in his madness! Did anyone know he had a new album out before the world wide publicity about the giveaway?

    Not many - and I'm mildly surprised that his more recent - and frankly less self-indulgent - albums aren't selling better. But it sure looks like the Purple One still knows how to maximise the take-home and fill a stadium. I have a funny feeling there are a few Mail reader who can still remember all the lyrics to Purple Rain, and do the sad white git funky chicken every time Kiss comes on the radio.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Ashby,

    Well to be pedantic, it wasn't on the cover it was in the plastic bag with the weekend magazines and shit. And the point was not to overlap with the Mail's readership it was to increase the number of copies sold. Worked here, paper wasn't read and has just been recycled (literally, I just heard the truck).

    Dundee, Scotland • Since May 2007 • 425 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    That was the first and only time I was going to buy the Daily Mail.

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Scott Hindmarsh,

    Russell, were you in Manner's Mall (Wellington) Tuesday? Thought it was you.. I was walking by, with my son, and called out 'Love your work, Russell'. You were sitting glued to a cell phone at the time.

    Welli-Wood • Since Jan 2007 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • robbery,

    Re supergroups, its not a big country.
    its totally possible to know just about everyone making music in this country. interestingly the national library saw fit to seek and pass a law requiring every artist and label to give 2 copies of every release to their archives. the penalty for non compliance with what is essentially an artists tax being a $5000 fine.
    for the amount of money it cost to draft that law produce and mail out their expensive booklet promote and police it they could easily have bought at full retail every copy of everything made in this country.

    so too with funding bodies. They could easily with the staff on hand and allocated funding be in regular contact with all players in the field and actively bring our music more easily to our ears, but then it wouldn't be a government funding body if it didn't spend more on administering its funding than it dished out in support. We are a small country, but we don't have to be stupid at the same time.

    new zealand • Since May 2007 • 1882 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    You mean we'll be forced to buy the Financial Times? erg!

    :-D

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Re supergroups, its not a big country.
    its totally possible to know just about everyone making music in this country. interestingly the national library saw fit to seek and pass a law requiring every artist and label to give 2 copies of every release to their archives. the penalty for non compliance with what is essentially an artists tax being a $5000 fine.
    for the amount of money it cost to draft that law produce and mail out their expensive booklet promote and police it they could easily have bought at full retail every copy of everything made in this country.

    Legal deposit requirements for national archives are part of the price of cultural citizenship, for goodness sake; they apply in every civilised country. It's been part of the law here since 1903.

    so too with funding bodies. They could easily with the staff on hand and allocated funding be in regular contact with all players in the field and actively bring our music more easily to our ears, but then it wouldn't be a government funding body if it didn't spend more on administering its funding than it dished out in support.

    Which funding body do you mean? NZ On Air, which last year incurred operational expenditure of $2.3m in the course of distributing $95m? Or the Music Industry Commission, which provides a range of services (including free legal advice for artists) on a budget of $600,000 pa? You might also want to check and see who's on the MIC board. What you've said is nonsense.

    We are a small country, but we don't have to be stupid at the same time.

    But we clearly place a premium on whingeing, it would seem.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • robbery,

    That's rich coming from someone who makes his living from wingeing, but then wingeing is all a matter of perspective innit :)

    new zealand • Since May 2007 • 1882 posts Report Reply

  • robbery,

    and now for the long reply

    not a musician I see :)
    legal deposit smosist, typical hands out for freebees kiwi attitude more like it, name on the door, free cd, can I get my mate one too attitude, funny how it only applies to the arts sector as you'd be hard pshed to get your dentist mate to drill a couple of holes for you for free.
    its a cheek is what it is, and now its a legally binding cheek. What's wrong with putting up a budget and purchasing the damn things like everyone else. Explain to me why cultural citizenship requires a pay to play mentality. is everyone required to donate part of their services in other sectors?

    It has been a part of the law for ages but until recently The Alexander Turnball library has done the right thing and purchased 2 copies of everything. Now we're taking a step back into the middle ages and the royal guards are going to come round to your nephews house and demand a copy of his electronic noodlings or they'll confiscate his best goat and torch his barn as punishment.

    Its bloody backward and insulting to the cottage industry music scene we have here. but thats ok, so long as 4 politicians 3 lawyers and 2 accountants were kept in the manner to which they've become accustom. Sheesh, yeah, nothing spells civilized progression as much as requiring a minority sector of your community to cough up for the crown (or govt back library as it were)

    Wingeing is all a matter of perspective as you know Russell. Your recent comments on autisms are probably seen as wingeing to the people you criticize but to a concerned and involved parent like yourself make perfect sense, and its your right to make such comments, and I wouldn't ever challenge your right to make them, or dismiss them as wingeing, although you seem comfortable to do so to someone else with views different to your own.

    I noticed a similar attitude in your mention of the esteemed film maker Michael Moore recently. What is it with dissing this guy. It seems incredibly fashionable to do so but people avoid addressing the actual points he's making in his movies, instead they focus on tenuous detail. you watched the you tube interviews with woolf etc. is it too much to expect journalists to do the job any more?

    My points are valid. this is a bloody small country and the music community its tight knit.

    While I respect your comments as a media commentator your experience in musical fields are obviously limited to an observer, no matter how many musicians you may know, have you really understood the climate they work in, or simply attended their gigs and behold the glory of their efforts. You only have to read Simon Grigg's Pagan records release list to get an eye opening perspective on Trevor's feelings on doing his thing in the nz climate. its not all happy smiles and satisfied customers. The man is pissed off with Radio, and was right up till he'd had enough.
    You had a go at Niel Finn for speaking his mind recently too. These are people who are actually at the coal face of it. I think their opinions are worth considering, and should be taken seriously.

    re nz on air - 95 mill is the total budget of nz on air for tv and film, not just music.
    There's a big chunk of salary money that goes into the music sector and my point was, its a small country, and for the size of the country these people do not communicate with their client base.

    I wasn't talking about the MIC as such but now that you mention it, weren't they set up to establish a music industry where thousands of musicians would be gainfully employed in a happy triving musical new zealand?
    But if anyone had bothered to talk to actual musicians that had been trying for years to earn a crust, (and you know some of those people yourself), they'd have figured out it was bloody impossible. This myth of the rich rockstar simply does not apply to NZ. Most of the top musicians earn if their lucky the equivalently of a mcdonalds wage, and definitely far less than the bureaucrats that administer the funding to sustain a valuable artform and social voice that simply CANNOT BE SUSTAINED in a country of this size.

    So actual figures for you. Shihad at their peak paid themselves $400 a week, at their peak,!!!! including all the income from gigging!!! The Feelers, were drawing just a little more than the dole at the top of that first mega selling album,
    People like Jordan Luck have a modest living, subsidized by judging talent quests and the like, certainly far less than their contemporaries who chose to go into bigger professions like accounting, or funding administration.

    its impossible, it's never happened and its not going to happen. You can count the people etching a living from it on your hands and toes.
    We need funding if we are to have the thriving creative artistic country we say we want, and we need what little funding we can afford to go to the right wheels, the kiwi wheels that make us proud. Trying to establish a self-sustaining commercial radio world of music producing local versions of overseas hits is a waste of time and money and damaging to our culture, it was a stupid idea then and it certainly is more so now as we see the globalisation of our self-image take hold.

    The whole arts issue in NZ is a lot more complex than you want to paint it and its cute that you chose to dismiss it as wingeing, but then its obviously not a central factor for you in your daily life, however to some people it is.

    new zealand • Since May 2007 • 1882 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    That's rich coming from someone who makes his living from wingeing

    I have no idea what calling "theatre" really means but I think that comment deserves a "theatre" call, robbery, don't you? Being paid to voice your opinion and share your expertise is very different to whingeing, wouldn't you agree? And I would also add that this is Mr Brown's forum - his little home on the Net if you will - and my mother always told me that when you are invited into someone's home, you are at all times gracious. Your comment strikes me as less than gracious.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • robbery,

    That's rich coming from someone who makes his living from wingeing

    I have no idea what calling "theatre" really means but I think that comment deserves a "theatre" call, robbery, don't you? Being paid to voice your opinion and share your expertise is very different to whingeing, wouldn't you agree? And I would also add that this is Mr Brown's forum - his little home on the Net if you will - and my mother always told me that when you are invited into someone's home, you are at all times gracious. Your comment strikes me as less than gracious.

    I hear you jackie but the full quote in full context was

    "That's rich coming from someone who makes his living from wingeing, but then wingeing is all a matter of perspective innit :)"


    ie there is a smilie on the end of it, as in a good natured ribbing given to someone who came on a way to strong to a guest in his home (also an etiquette no no) . but this is the internet, a public forum, and hopefully Russell has the discussion option on his forum on because he wants people to discuss. If he wanted purely pats on the back he'd have the "approve each comment" option switched on.

    as I said, one persons wingeing is another's informed expertise.
    it all depends on how dismissive you want to be, and what your field of expertise is.

    new zealand • Since May 2007 • 1882 posts Report Reply

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