Posts by Scott A
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Cypher, on the deck. Lord of all he sees.
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Oh, forgot to mention Pajama Club and Wilco, too. Two albums that show that 'dad rock' doesn't have to be a negative term! Great to hear two great song writers being comfortable and confident enough with what they do to play with it, have some fun, and end up producing their best respective albums for year.
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On the metal front, is Mastodon’s “The Hunter” as good as people say?
Well, I think so: Crack The Skye may've fallen into the 'prog-metal' category due to song length and concept, but The Hunter does so by more competently - and excitingly - using complex time signatures and confident song structures. My favourite Maston album thus far.
On that note, I really enjoyed Opeth's Heritage as well. The album's been derided a lot by metal fans for being, well, too soft, but the confidence and playfulness by which this once Black Metal band inhabited the seventies progressive rock style (a style that needs a lot of confidence to be playful!) was really fun for me.
Away from metal, two surprising favourites for me have been Feist's Metals and La Dispute's Wildlife.
I haven't been a great fan of Feist before, but Metals is stunningly good, chamber pop music at its intelligent best. At moments the songs and arrangements would make Bacarach proud - if ol' Burt had been a Canadian indie kid.
And La Dispute shouldn't be my cup of tea - shouty emo post-hardcore confessional lyric stuff. But with Wildlife there's a near perfect mix of complex, dynamic, punkish hardcore music sitting alongside heart-on-sleeve spoken/shouted word, where the lyrics are observational rather than just awkward. When the lyrics reveal themselves with tales of drive-by shootings, children dying from cancer, the delapidation of a neighbourhood church, I find so much going on that's rewarding. And in the song 'Ken Park', when the vocalist (speaking as a terrified young gang-banger negotiating his surrender to police) screams "Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself? Can I ever be forgiven 'cos I killed that kid?" is one of the most intense musical moments of the year.
But album of the year for me is PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake". Even ten months on I can't be react viscerally to her musical poems about war and its costs. I wonder if part of the reaction comes from hearing her sing about Gallipoli - names and events driven into my psyche from childhood - by more likely it's the combination of slightly off-kilter instrumentation and arrangement combined with her new vocal style and those powerful powerful lyrics.
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Does anyone else based their vote partly on how humorous / awkward the conversation between Russell and a slightly-confused pre-Xmas Geoff Robinson might be on Morning Report when the winner is announced?
Fuckeulogy would have the shock value, but trying to explain #hipstersforGoldsmith would be endlessly entertaining!
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Munted would get my vote, too. Mandate a close second too.
But some other topical options for the year could include:
Radler
Skynet
Groin -
I made an advance vote this year; just seemed obvious, given there was a polling station in the lobby of the building I worked in.
In hindsight, I don't think I'll be doing that again. Just doesn't feel the same, not toddling off to the local school to vote on the day itself. I missed that interaction, yesterday, smiling and having a nice word to the staff, mulling things on my walk to and from the place.
That, and the "don't mention politics" on social media yesterday, I instead found myself stewing along, thinking about politics more than I've done on election day in any election previous. By the time the results started to come through I'd worked myself into a complete funk of despair about what the results might be; confirmed for the longest time as it looked likely National was going to be able to govern alone.
As it turns out, it's not quite that bad. I think there'll still be enough political pull to temper some of the worst tendencies of National's right wing.
And, of course, there'll be the soul-searching on the left. Can Labour get back all those Green voters? People who voted Green for the first time because Labour wasn't speaking to them and now found it didn't hurt and the didn't immediately become sandal-wearing hippies?
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Dancing Cranes. Dancing godamned Cranes. I think I can die happy now (yes, I'm easily pleased)!
The fireworks section of the opening ceremony was astounding. Co-ordinated musicians, vehicles, performers and pyrotechnics across half-a-dozen or so locations, dozens of camera operators, all directed with aplomb and edited into a smooth presentation. It'd be amazingly good if it was a highlights package for a tourism video, but that damn thing was put together and broadcast live! Amazing.
Shame the game that followed wasn't quite as good; but then, it was always going to be a bit one sided. Today's Romania vs Scotland game, on the other hand, had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Now that was fun!
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Just putting it out there, my (limited) understanding is that land that grows the more pungent variety of tobacco can also grow good hop varieties. And we're suffering a world-wide shortage of hops.
Make beer not cigarettes!
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I also am going 'why' a bit with the changes in income tax. Given, as you're pointing out, it doesn't actually seem to do much to the government's books all up, why is it there?
The 'envy tax' narrative - the punishment of aspiration and betterment criticism of higher levels of income tax - still exists and still finds air time (just yesterday I heard / read Mike Hoskin, David Slack and Sue Wells all mention it). It is still capable of derailing any positive messages from Labour's package. Why risk it?
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Having read the IPONZ decision today (hey, I was home sick and it is a matter close to my heart, i.e. craft beer) I can see SOBA were always up against it by the rules as they stand.
Proving the trade mark should never have been granted required proof that Radler was a common or genric term in New Zealand in 2003, which unfortunately it wasn't. And saying the trade mark should lapse due to term being in common use now also wouldn't fly, as for almost all beer drinkers the word 'Radler' refers to the Monteith's citrus-flavoured lager, not a shandy-type beer. Unfortuantely the rules don't allow for the use of a word overseas to be part of the decision, it is use in NZ.
So, it's now solely back to DB, in my view. They could do the right thing and surrender the trade mark (as they did with 'Saison' a while back). And publicity and pressure is the way for this to happen. So, item's like tonights lead on Campbell Live were good to see. I'd also boycott any of their products, but I haven't drunken anything on that list since last time I was at Westpac Stadium...
