Sunday, October 17, 2004
Makara
A couple of pics from an impromptu bbq at Makara Beach on the first weekend of daylight savings...
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Saturday, October 16, 2004
Text Download
An email to a friend got bounced by email filter software yesterday because I used the term "Oh my god". I've experienced workplace profanity filters, but this seemed unnecessarily heavy handed. A blasphemy filter?
My work seems to scan every webpage I browse, which also throws up some pretty amusing results - particularly the lurid messages that pop up when you you get bounced from a certain page.
Below are the messages I got when I was blocked from my own website (still very much under construction), where I had posted some of the old Package editorials from when we started it up down in Christchurch. As you can see, they give the distinct impression of a filter program with a dirty mind, joining the dots to create smut where none was intended - it's pretty funny:
It all reminds me of a cassette copy of "The Twelfth Man" that a friend had at Intermediate School. It had a bleep-censored version of the sketch on the B side, followed by a carefully spliced audio montage of every swear word which had been erased. It was about two minutes long, hilarious, and naughty - and our favourite part of the tape.
My work seems to scan every webpage I browse, which also throws up some pretty amusing results - particularly the lurid messages that pop up when you you get bounced from a certain page.
Below are the messages I got when I was blocked from my own website (still very much under construction), where I had posted some of the old Package editorials from when we started it up down in Christchurch. As you can see, they give the distinct impression of a filter program with a dirty mind, joining the dots to create smut where none was intended - it's pretty funny:
Text download (TEXT, 50726 bytes) was restricted by the text censor rule 'Scan and block pornographic content'.TextCensor Script 'Pornography' triggered with total weighting of 10:
Expression 'disease OR medicine' triggered 1 times, weighting -1
Expression 'doctor OR surgeon OR surgery' triggered 1 times, weighting -1
Expression '(preteen OR preteens OR pre-teen OR pre-teens) AND (naked OR
nude OR hardcore)' triggered 1 times, weighting 4
Expression 'centrefold*' triggered 1 times, weighting 1
Expression 'cum OR cumm' triggered 1 times, weighting 2
Expression 'fuck' triggered 1 times, weighting 2
Expression 'hardcore OR hard core' triggered 1 times, weighting 1
Expression 'horny' triggered 1 times, weighting 1
Expression 'sex OR sexy' triggered 1 times, weighting 1
Text download (TEXT, 50888 bytes) was restricted by the text censor rule 'Scan for offensive language'.TextCensor Script 'Offensive Language' triggered with total weighting of 16:
Expression 'arse' triggered 2 times, weighting 4
Expression 'bitch' triggered 1 times, weighting 2
Expression 'crap' triggered 4 times, weighting 8
Expression 'nigger' triggered 1 times, weighting 2
Contact your WebMarshal administrator if you need access for business purposes.
It all reminds me of a cassette copy of "The Twelfth Man" that a friend had at Intermediate School. It had a bleep-censored version of the sketch on the B side, followed by a carefully spliced audio montage of every swear word which had been erased. It was about two minutes long, hilarious, and naughty - and our favourite part of the tape.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
MarineVille Interview
Interview with Mark Williams, front man of Wellington band MarineVille, about their newly released second album, 'Diving the Wreck'...
How has your sound developed since the first album?
I think people heard 'Ready for the Dance' as a nice, dreamy, atmospheric thing, I really wanted this to be more on the beat. So I deliberately wrote a couple of really murderous rock songs, and even the quieter songs I think have really pointed dynamics. It's definitely more lo-fi which has more to do with us recording ourselves and not having a clue what we were doing, but it's the music that matters, innit?
Who's playing on the album?
Geoffrey Trail is the drummer, his playing is very elegant, subtle, pointed, like someone who grew up listening to Gene Pitney whilst quaffing his breakfast cornflakes. David Hall plays most of the bass and guitar, he can play it murderous, melodic, textural and has great deadpan backing vocals. John Douglas adds wonderful feel and propulsion on bass. Craig Monk, John White and Francesca Mountfort add sweeping strings... All are open to playing something traditional or strange and take the song somewhere I couldn't.
How did your relationship with Involve Records come about?
Bevan Smith (Involve) came to our gigs and liked us, when we were looking for a bass player we asked him. Bevan offered to release the album irrespective of whether he joined the band.
Apparently you first recorded the album in 2002, then scrapped it and started again. Why?
They were beautiful recordings but we just weren't ready to play the songs. A couple of songs I had left too open ended and we hadn't sorted the dynamics properly, consequently the performances didn't have any momentum or were just WRONG. So we scrapped all but two which are on the record. It was a good learning experience.
You've said: "It almost felt experimental to try and write a really good verse-chorus-bridge rock song." What do you mean? Who do you think does it well?
I got really sick of bands playing 'post-rock' or washy atmospheric music. So much of it sounds like new age music for the 21st century. I went to this lecture once by Graeme Downes on Nirvana versus the rest of grunge music and he pointed out the difference between 'the songs they write and the sounds they make', which to me is the problem with all the post-My Bloody Valentine and Godspeed/Mogwai groups, most use pedals and volume as an excuse for dynamics. As for who does verse-chorus music well, Davendra Banhardt is pretty cool, The Timeless Sounds are our local resident geniuses of 'the song'.
What about schmaltz? Who are your role models of schmaltz?
As a child I remember my father accompanying Dean Martin by wearing Mum's apron and mime-singing into a spatula. It was a very formative experience I have subsequently tried to forget/recapture by listening to Scott Walker, Richard Hawley and Jacques Brel. Jacques' schmaltz is pretty poisoned - my favourite kind. Yum.
Tell us about the video for the single 'Let's Build a House'...
Now THAT is one sick piece of candy. Thighs... there are thighs. Exposed, pale ones. Lycra, there is lycra. It will be released early November. It was made by Lissa Mitchell. You'll lose 10 pounds just watching it. I feel sick just talking about it. It's brilliant.
Plans to tour with the album?
You bet. After being in the studio for a year or more, we're raring to go. We'll be playing in Auckland on Nov 6th at Edens Bar and the CD release party is in Wellington Nov 13th at Happy.
(for The package)
How has your sound developed since the first album?
I think people heard 'Ready for the Dance' as a nice, dreamy, atmospheric thing, I really wanted this to be more on the beat. So I deliberately wrote a couple of really murderous rock songs, and even the quieter songs I think have really pointed dynamics. It's definitely more lo-fi which has more to do with us recording ourselves and not having a clue what we were doing, but it's the music that matters, innit?
Who's playing on the album?
Geoffrey Trail is the drummer, his playing is very elegant, subtle, pointed, like someone who grew up listening to Gene Pitney whilst quaffing his breakfast cornflakes. David Hall plays most of the bass and guitar, he can play it murderous, melodic, textural and has great deadpan backing vocals. John Douglas adds wonderful feel and propulsion on bass. Craig Monk, John White and Francesca Mountfort add sweeping strings... All are open to playing something traditional or strange and take the song somewhere I couldn't.
How did your relationship with Involve Records come about?
Bevan Smith (Involve) came to our gigs and liked us, when we were looking for a bass player we asked him. Bevan offered to release the album irrespective of whether he joined the band.
Apparently you first recorded the album in 2002, then scrapped it and started again. Why?
They were beautiful recordings but we just weren't ready to play the songs. A couple of songs I had left too open ended and we hadn't sorted the dynamics properly, consequently the performances didn't have any momentum or were just WRONG. So we scrapped all but two which are on the record. It was a good learning experience.
You've said: "It almost felt experimental to try and write a really good verse-chorus-bridge rock song." What do you mean? Who do you think does it well?
I got really sick of bands playing 'post-rock' or washy atmospheric music. So much of it sounds like new age music for the 21st century. I went to this lecture once by Graeme Downes on Nirvana versus the rest of grunge music and he pointed out the difference between 'the songs they write and the sounds they make', which to me is the problem with all the post-My Bloody Valentine and Godspeed/Mogwai groups, most use pedals and volume as an excuse for dynamics. As for who does verse-chorus music well, Davendra Banhardt is pretty cool, The Timeless Sounds are our local resident geniuses of 'the song'.
What about schmaltz? Who are your role models of schmaltz?
As a child I remember my father accompanying Dean Martin by wearing Mum's apron and mime-singing into a spatula. It was a very formative experience I have subsequently tried to forget/recapture by listening to Scott Walker, Richard Hawley and Jacques Brel. Jacques' schmaltz is pretty poisoned - my favourite kind. Yum.
Tell us about the video for the single 'Let's Build a House'...
Now THAT is one sick piece of candy. Thighs... there are thighs. Exposed, pale ones. Lycra, there is lycra. It will be released early November. It was made by Lissa Mitchell. You'll lose 10 pounds just watching it. I feel sick just talking about it. It's brilliant.
Plans to tour with the album?
You bet. After being in the studio for a year or more, we're raring to go. We'll be playing in Auckland on Nov 6th at Edens Bar and the CD release party is in Wellington Nov 13th at Happy.
(for The package)
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Wendyhouse, 'Pan'
Wiggley Tapes
The concept for this CD (and believe me, it's conceptual) goes like this: Wendyhouse's two band member/collaborators, Mr Pudding and EE Monk, based on opposite sides of the world, contributed a channel each to the album. Neither had heard the others' contribution, and only the track length and title were predetermined. The two channels (left and right, hence the title) were then combined to create each track on the album. The CD also comes complete with two sets of cover art, one from each member.
It all sounds suspiciously like sound art - a similarly devised piece was included in the Nat Rad/Physics Room curated 'Audible' art show last year - but does it work as music?
Predictably, the answer is 'yes and no'. While it won't hold much appeal for the average More FM listener, the album in fact sounds surprisingly cohesive. The fact that on most tracks only one channel contains vocals helps rein in the chaos, as do the short track lengths, and Messrs Monk and Pudding's long history of collaboration.
The sound ranges from messy and dense to spooky and disorienting. On two tracks in particular, the juxtaposition is really effective. 'One Bored In Heaven, Two Bored In Hell' features fuzzy casiotone newromantic melancholy in one speaker, heavenly harp'n'choir in the other, while the fifteen minute closer 'Skull and Crossphones' is an expansive slice of folktronica.
In the end, 'Pan' sounds like it can't decide if it's a work of conceptual art or a seriously warped rock album, and maybe that's the (deliberate) underlying duality of the whole thing? As far as experiments go, it's a success.
(for The package)
The concept for this CD (and believe me, it's conceptual) goes like this: Wendyhouse's two band member/collaborators, Mr Pudding and EE Monk, based on opposite sides of the world, contributed a channel each to the album. Neither had heard the others' contribution, and only the track length and title were predetermined. The two channels (left and right, hence the title) were then combined to create each track on the album. The CD also comes complete with two sets of cover art, one from each member.
It all sounds suspiciously like sound art - a similarly devised piece was included in the Nat Rad/Physics Room curated 'Audible' art show last year - but does it work as music?
Predictably, the answer is 'yes and no'. While it won't hold much appeal for the average More FM listener, the album in fact sounds surprisingly cohesive. The fact that on most tracks only one channel contains vocals helps rein in the chaos, as do the short track lengths, and Messrs Monk and Pudding's long history of collaboration.
The sound ranges from messy and dense to spooky and disorienting. On two tracks in particular, the juxtaposition is really effective. 'One Bored In Heaven, Two Bored In Hell' features fuzzy casiotone newromantic melancholy in one speaker, heavenly harp'n'choir in the other, while the fifteen minute closer 'Skull and Crossphones' is an expansive slice of folktronica.
In the end, 'Pan' sounds like it can't decide if it's a work of conceptual art or a seriously warped rock album, and maybe that's the (deliberate) underlying duality of the whole thing? As far as experiments go, it's a success.
(for The package)
(0) comments
FoC Yeah
Some very very exciting news for Flight of the Conchords. If anyone has a shot at making the great NZ sitcom (or even one that just doesn't completely suck...), it's these guys. And if their success in Edinburgh is anything to go by, their humour translates just fine into an overseas context (at the same time as being uniquely 'of New Zealand'). With the benefit of NBC's institutional sitcom expertise, they should be able to produce some *real funny shit*.
Received wisdom has it that about the greatest level of success artistic types can achieve is mass market exposure while retaining creative integrity - a la Bjork, Beck et al. Apparently, it's easier to stay underground and preach to the converted, or sell out and suck, than to find that elusive artistic/commercial balance. Possibly NZers have an edge in this respect, cos most performers here don't realistically expect to achieve a high level of financial success?
BTW, Can anyone confirm that FOC's name was coined around the time of the Air France Paris Concorde crash in 2000? Subversive! Just don't tell the US media megacorp execs, if they thought Shihad sounded like Jihad, they sure ain't gonna like this...
Received wisdom has it that about the greatest level of success artistic types can achieve is mass market exposure while retaining creative integrity - a la Bjork, Beck et al. Apparently, it's easier to stay underground and preach to the converted, or sell out and suck, than to find that elusive artistic/commercial balance. Possibly NZers have an edge in this respect, cos most performers here don't realistically expect to achieve a high level of financial success?
BTW, Can anyone confirm that FOC's name was coined around the time of the Air France Paris Concorde crash in 2000? Subversive! Just don't tell the US media megacorp execs, if they thought Shihad sounded like Jihad, they sure ain't gonna like this...
(1) comments
Cher, chercher and Chers
It's very common round these parts to sign of emails with the New Zealand English abbreviation of 'cheers', 'cher'. Pushing the Billy T cred a little, you get 'chercher'.
Are there any Chers out there? How do you get around this?
Churz
Are there any Chers out there? How do you get around this?
Churz
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