Posts by Russell Brown
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BTW, in one of those delightful moments of libraries immitating life I've just taken delivery of a shiny new copy of Andrew Sullivan's The Conservative Soul. Please restrain your snickers, because it's worth a look.
Book review, please. For PA Radio, then I'll post the text along with the podcast? Or a guest post?
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YouTube Poop is what happens when people take cutscenes from these awful old games on the Phillips CDI and totally F them up. It ranges from old CDI games to old-ass cartoons. Some people have actually refined YouTube Poop into an art form. Nevertheless, enjoy.
Here's one for fans of the fart joke...
The all-time classic, Robotnik and his Gameboy:
I highly doubt anyone's actually played that awful Zelda CDI game <i>The Faces of Evil</i>, But if you have, I'm sure you'll remember this bastard...
You've just been freakyrolled. Wait, what?
And another for those who remember the faces of evil.
And now for something completely different. If anyone's played the original <i>Half Life</i> and its sequel I'm sure you'll enjoy this:
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__But isn't Bush a a complete bastard.__
Hooray, we all agree!
GW Bush, uniting liberals since, well ... ever, really.
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One of the people in the audience for this week's show was Trevor Reekie, the founder of Pagan and Antenna Records, and also the producer(?) of the excellent Access All Areas music interview slot for Radio NZ National. He was checking his research for his interview with Brendan Smythe on related topics, which will air tomorrow as part of Music 101 tomorrow afternoon some time between 2pm and 5pm. I'll link to the full interview when it goes up on the RNZ website early next week.
Trevor was wary of posting here himself because he thought it'd look like self-promotion (which is sort of sweet), but I'll do it for him. The comments below are his:
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My impression of how NZ on conducts itself reinforces my belief that NZ on Air is still one of the best things that ever happened to NZ music and still is. My interview with Brendan is quite illuminating in so much that Brendan is very aware of the new digital landscape, and obviously changes at major labels etc but as he says he is in the broadcasting business, his job is to get NZ music on radio and TV. Brendan sees the digital revolution as an opportunity for NZ artists as much as he sees it as an opportunity for NZ on Air.
He concedes that to a certain extent he hasn't been able to take advantage of these opportunities by virtue of a quirk in the 1988 Broadcasting Act (obviously before any of us saw this digital revolution coming) ... He goes on to say that this quirk in the 1988 Act has recently been addressed ... And has potentially cleared the way to explore digital options. He doesn't know what those options will be yet. Who does?
He also goes on to say, in reference to the recent Savage breakout (and top marks to Savage for looking like he could repeat an OMC scenario) that NZ on Air funded the Savage video, and is fully aware of the number of hits it has had on YouTube. That has to imply that he is aware of new taste makers and the influence of music bloggers et al. He is conversant of where those videos should be and what sites he expects them to be. As he says "if a NZ on Air video is not up on YouTube and MySpace we want to know why not".
We covered many of the areas that you touched upon, especially Gray's comments. Whilst I understand Gray's frustration I think it's fair to say that (as you know) NZ on Air can't fund a song that won't get played on radio or tv and that is not a indictment on any genre of music, or the quality of that music, it's more a product of the broadcasting landscape. In my time NZ on Air funded some videos for the Warratahs, Barry Saunders and Al Hunter... There was a country FM station then and most of those aforementioned artists crossed over to the likes of Classic Hits etc as well... It's an even faster changing landscape now.
Last year I made an album with Nigel Gavin. I know that Nigel is never going to be green lit by any panel of broadcasters cos there is no-one who is going to play his material except for a few isolated shows on stations like Radio NZ National, the George FM jazz show, isolated B Net shows and some Te Reo stations (because of his work with Whirimako Black). Nigel Gavin has played with Robert Fripp, and has dazzled many international touring artists including K D Laing recently and he can off load as many CDs as he can carry at a variety of International Guitar festivals. I understand his exclusion from the NZ on Air funding process and it is not something I would point the finger at NZ on Air about. There are other agencies.
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Guess who never got funded again after that ??? so i can see the reluctance for those who do curry favour with BS to say the same thing given how he runs his fiefdom.
To be honest, I think that's one of the most difficult things about Brendan's position. I really don't think he works that way, but when he's the holder of the biggest purse over such a long period, people are naturally going to assume they were passed over because they spoke out of turn.
NZ On Air become the music industry reservoir basically by accident. At least until 2000, popular music fell between stools -- it was to commercial for arts funding and too freaky for NZTE-type industry support. NZ On Air demonstrated through the 90s that it could bridge that gap, and it became the de facto delivery agency for music after 2000.
I am a bit disappointed that the agency as a whole didn't try and get a grip on the internet sooner, but the problem there was really its enabling legislation. Until a recent Broadcasting Act amendment, it wasn't allowed to go there, or it would have to do it circuitously, via the innovation fund.
I'm on the board (unpaid, before anyone jumps to conclusions) of the NZ On Air-backed NZ Onscreen Trust, which will later this year launch a very cool and fairly large online archive and showcase for NZ screen culture, including music videos. You'll have the option to stream archive TV programmes at quite high bitrates. That's a good development. But I reckon the agency, and the policy-makers, still have a lot of thinking to yet to do about the internet and social media.
For that matter, so do broadcasters.
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I did get a hit of pride, and a find of a hithero unknown [to me] brilliant kiwi artist last night, The first track on the new[est] Andy Weatherall compilation 'Watch the ride' -Roy Montgomery : London Is Swinging By His Neck, its good in that punky/funky/rockabilly way that Weatherall grooves these days.
That's great.
Roy is an example to others, I reckon. He's continued to make exactly the music he wants to make, and release it to a small but passionate audience. Entire catalgue on emusic, if you're interested ...
Ditto The Terminals. Their album last year, Last Days of the Sun, was on a bunch of US indie tastemaker best-ofs for 2007, but I couldn't even buy it at Real Groovy. It's worth the hunt, though -- it's a very cool record.
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Holy crap. Is there time to buy a house while on a salvia trip?
Inadvisable.
For less than $270 000 in Linwood you could have, say, this.
That's some nice house for the money alright ...
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Certainly, dance music seems to have dropped off the hipster radar, and with the exception of the occasional partly-ironic electro act it's hard to get away from those damned guitars these days. Maybe ravers are the new bogans, at least as far as the harder end of the spectrum goes.
In Auckland, I think your young hipsters might prefer indie-dance nights like Quay Street Social Club and SoHomo. There's a variety of music and more of a chance to socialise (and, of course, take photographs of each other). And the King's Arms has gone from old and unhip to Friday night party, depending on who's playing.
It might just be because I'm so old, but by comparison, dance music clubs don't seem so much fun. Too many dickheads in tight t-shirts, and the music can be cack.
D&B is its own thing.
And maybe it's different in Auckland, but house seems almost invisible outside of a few B&T Courtenay Place bars, and the Wellington emphasis seems to have gone from dub/roots (which is deeply unhip now) to indie, electro-punk and alt-country.
It would be nice if there was a relaxed club somewhere there that played proper house music. The last few times I've been in a CBD bar playing dance music, it was the sort of shite you hear on ZM.
The only bar I've danced in in the past year has been Family (and Supermarket downstairs). My thanks to teh gays for having a nice place ...
BTW: I've been tripping out lately to Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes' version of 'Don't Leave Me This Way' -- a stone disco classic that builds to an absolutely funk frenzy. But that really does make me sound old.
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Mikaere - Sweet 16 on the Green List - good on you.
Oh yeah -- I saw that, and meant to mention it. Nice one -- have a good campaign, Mikaere.
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