Now there's a nice oxymoron for you...

The black silhouette apparently squatting against the radio mast on top of Mt Vic gives us cause to reflect on the universal, quasi-spiritual, fervour with which we approach rugby in New Zealand. (And, we should remember, with which any number of different sports are approached in different cultures across the world.) The comparison of sport with religion is trite, but worth revisiting in this case - if only because the only other public symbol that is ever displayed in that esteemed position, atop the summit of Wellington, like a panoptic eye, is the Christian cross.

More from SST...

Jamiroquai - Dynamite - 2/5

In 1993, Jason Kay burst onto the scene with a massive debut album and unprecedented eight-album deal with Sony. While even skeptics acknowledge his impressive musical talent, Kay is often characterized as a one-trick, early-seventies Stevie Wonder copyist (not that it’s ever done his sales any harm). Thirteen years and twenty million albums later, ‘Dynamite’ is still heavily derivative of Stevie, but Kay has expanded his horizons a little - he also rips off Basement Jaxx ('Electric Mistress', '(Don't) Give Hate A Chance'). With nods elsewhere to filter house, acid jazz, and other schmaltzy genres, this would be the perfect soundtrack to the yuppie dinner party from hell.


Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love - 3/5

Prolific alt.country pioneer Smog (Bill Callahan) has stayed true to his sparse, individualistic vision over the years - this is his twelfth album for Drag City. While there's no denying the power and character of his voice, with arrangements this minimal, the lack of distracting sonic fluff exposes the weaker material for what it is. But when the songs are good ('Rock Bottom Riser' and 'Let Me See the Colts' are up there with his best), it's efficient, moving stuff. On 'Drinking at the Dam' Callahan offers a minute, definitive statement on the lost innocence of childhood: 'It was the first part of my life/Second is the rest'.


Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business - 2/5

At some point this millennium, BEP stopped making hiphop and became, unashamedly, a pop band. Thankfully, there's nothing quite so singularly awful here as 'Where is the Love' or 'Lets Get Retarded' from their last effort, 2003's Elephunk. Nevertheless, too much of Monkey Business sounds like jingles to accompany music videos, rather than music per se. A telltale sign of artistic stasis, the quality of the material is more or less determined by the quality of the collaborators. The old-skool hiphop of 'Like That' (featuring Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and Cee-Lo) stands up pretty well, as does the Timbaland-produced 'My Style' (featuring Justin Timberlake), James Brown (yes, The Godfather of Soul) guest spot 'They Don't Want Music', and the ragga-lite of 'Dum Diddly'. Conversely, collaborations with Jack Johnson and Sting are dire and can only be read as transparent attempts to grow BEP’s share of the crossover market. Much of the rest of the album is lazy, disposable party tunes. Particularly evil are opener 'Pump It' (with its criminally unimaginative sample of Dick Dale's 'Misirlou') and 'The Humps', which is just plain juvenile (viz., 'humps' equals tits). A little quality control would have gone a long way - at 70 minutes, this album is overweight.

On the grounds that once a publication is past its use-by date I'm not doing anyone out of a sale, I've put up a few CD reviews of various things I've done this year - from Staple (RIP) here and here, and The Fairfax Star Times here and here.

Don't know if it technically counts as blogging, but who gives...

Did my first radio show in a couple of years on the weekend and had a great time, even if it was 1-3am on Saturday night... Actually, the timeslot didn't suck nearly as much as I thought - there's no ads, no playlist, no voice breaks, just playing records and drinking whisky, the way life should be. I should be doing it again in a couple of weeks, then maybe eventually get something a little more hospitable. For anyone who give a monkey's - here's roughly what i played, roughly in order:

Zdar - How Do You See Me Now? - Turbo
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations - DFA
Adult - Hand to Phone - Ersatz Audio
The Rapture - Sister Saviour (Tiefschwarz's Secret Sisters Remix) - DFA
Human League - All I Ever Wanted (Alter Ego Remix) - Klang Elektronik
Midnight Mike - Round & Around - Flesh
Franz & Shape - Countach (Linus Loves Remix) - Relish
DJTal - Digital World - Art of Disco
Nemesi - Cosmica (Lindstrom & Prins Thomas Remix) - Relish
Rick James - Cold Blooded - Motown
Prince - The Ballad of Dorothy Parker - Warner Bros
Skatt Brothers - Walk the Night (Ara Simonian Remix) - ???
Mister J - Love Cutz Remix - Missive
Crowd Pleaser and St Plomb featuring Selfish in Bed - Rather Be - Mental Groove
Chicken Lips - Do it Proper - King Size
Michael Mayer - Speaker - Kompakt
Porter Ricks - Spoiled - Force Inc
Mr Flagio - Take A Chance (Kiko Re-edit) - Hot Banana
Yazoo - State Farm - Mute
B.W.H. - Stop (Bangkok Impact Remix) - Radius
Human League - You Remind Me of Gold - Virgin
Royksopp - Remind Me (James Zabiela's Ingeborg Mix) - Wall of Sound
Metro Area - Atmospherique - Environ

Reviews from SST...

Belle and Sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds - 4/5

Beloved of sensitive indie boys and girls the world over, Belle and Sebastian have carved a niche for themselves over the last decade with their droll lyrics and immaculately crafted pop songs. Unashamedly sixties-obsessed, frontman Stuart Murdoch transplants the sunny Californian psychedelia of The Byrds and Love to a grimy Glaswegian bedsit, observing life with a novelist’s eye for detail. This two disk anthology collects material from EPs released on independent labels between 1997 and 2001. Far more than an outtakes and oddities collection, this is some of the band’s absolute best work. Essential listening for fans, and a great primer for uninitiated.

Kelly Osbourne - Sleeping in the Nothing - 1/5

Celebrity daughter Kelly Osbourne has moved on from angsty pop punk posturing and jumped aboard the retro-eighties bandwagon with her second album. Production and songwriting are courtesy of producer-du-jour Linda Perry, who has worked with everyone from Christina Aguilera to Fischerspooner. Behind the glossy pop sheen, however, the material is banal and completely derivative. The best song, opening track and single ‘One Word’, has its verse lifted whole from Visage’s ‘Fade to Grey’. The analog synths, drum machines, and screaming eighties guitars are all here, but with none of the clunky charm of retro-futurist acts like Ladytron. Lightweight nobrainer MTV pop.

Steve Malkmus - Face the Truth - 4/5

Pavement may be dead and gone, but former frontman Steve Malkmus shows no sign of slowing down – ‘Face the Truth’ is his third and best solo album. While much of the truly chaotic energy of early Pavement recordings is gone, there remains a clear continuity between his recent solo work and the later output of his former band. Consequently, ‘Face the Truth’ comes across like a more mature, focused version of Pavement’s shambolic/laconic southern rock. And with Malkmus still capable of writing songs as beautiful and (relatively) direct as the lilting ‘Freeze the Saints’, that’s a fine thing. Genius at work.

Well, it took all of four months - maybe four and a half - and the hard drive on my Nomad Zen Xtra 40GB Jukebox or whatever the fuck it's called has crapped out. Well, to be honest I probably fucked it by jogging with it.

Anyway, I spent a little time looking on user forums last night and sure enough it seems to be a common problem, to which there is one solution - replace the HDD... But that's a DIY, wave-goodbye-to-the-warranty kind of solution. My warranty is history anyway, since I bought in the USA (via Amazon, shipped to a friend in NYC, who shipped it to me). The good news is, it seems that sometimes the HDD will still work in a laptop, even if the Nomad thinks it's fucked. So maybe I'll be able to salvage the drive and have an extra 40GB drive in my laptop. I'll need a geek to help me with that, methinks. And i don't wanna void the warranty on my laptop...

Nomads are cheap, and the battery and HDD are replacable, which is great (c.f. i-pod), but it's a basically heap of shit - heavy, big, ugly, and, as it turns out, less than robust.

Thing is, I can't live without portable music - I listened to that thing for several hours every day. Ouch. Think I might get an i-pod mini - only 4GB but at least they're not five hundred bucks. If only I could be sure that won't crap out on me too. Makes my VISA hurt just thinking about it...

Just had to note this very cute record cover/song title - "Take Ecstasy With Me" by dance punk outfit !!! (usually pronounced chick-chick-chick) on Touch and Go:

Some readers will remember their great post-911 twelve on Warp, "Me and Giuliani Down By the Schoolyard (A True Story)".

A bit of useful advice from the Barefoot Doctor:

The only way to handle the existential crisis is to ride it like you would a wild animal - roll with it as it tosses you around by breathing steadily and relaxing.

The key is not to try and draw any firm conclusions - attempting to come up with definitive answers to the deeper existential questions of life is a game for fools - if there is any reason we're here in the first place, it's to enjoy the experience and that means appreciating the existential crisis too. To which end you should simply observe yourself going through the grips of the crisis and graciously allow it to pass, as it surely will, just like a heavy storm passing in the sky of mind.

Wisdom comes in time but by trying to force it before it's ready to drop, you only push it further away. The best way when undergoing the worst of the crisis is to focus on the simple blessings you have: a body, a mind, breath, presumably enough fluid and food for now and hopefully a bit of love - and be thankful for that - the rest is all bonus anyway.

As soon as you surrender like this to the crisis it stops of itself anyway - it just wanted to be acknowledged was all (it being the primal level of self, generally buried beneath layers of cultured-in programmes screaming to be heard).

Reviews from SST...

THE KILLS - NO WOW - 4/5

The Kills are a Florida-based girl-boy outfit who play stripped-back bluesy garage rock. As you’d expect from that description, their sound owes something to other minimal, raw rock acts like The White Stripes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. While it’s easy to draw comparisons, there’s plenty of innovation here, especially the use of fuzzy, lo-fi drum machine. The title track, for example, sounds like a young PJ Harvey singing a cappella over a release from German techno label Kompakt. In other words, bloody fantastic. The lovelorn Rodeo Town and the Patti Smith-like Ticket Man provide other highlights. An excellent album.

FAITHLESS - FOREVER - 2/5

Back in the mid-nineties Faithless took the dance world by storm, and, being the halcyon days of super clubs and super DJs, hit the pop charts on more than one occasion. Forever collects sixteen of their greatest hits, most edited down to home stereo-friendly three minute length. The euphoria and hedonism of the era is ever-present – think thumping kick drums, airy female vocals, huge snare rolls, and uplifting synths. The title of one of their best known tracks, ‘God is a DJ’, gives you some idea of where they’re coming from - this is strictly a subtlety-free zone. In retrospect, Faithless were the epitome of pop-trance. Great if you like that kind of thing.

FAT FREDDY’S DROP - BASED ON A TRUE STORY - 4/5

After winning hearts and blowing minds with their live shows, Fat Freddy’s Drop have finally committed their wholly unique bass-heavy amalgam of funk, soul, hiphop, jazz, dub, and roots reggae to CD. The tracks are immaculately arranged, proceeding from deceptively simple riffs, with DJ Mu letting the percussion, horns, etc ‘drop’ in at just the right time to pick the songs up towards their final crescendo. Containing an almost entirely new suite of songs, the album went straight to the top of the NZ charts on release – a rare achievement for an independent release, and testament to their massive grass roots support and the consistent brilliance of their singles so far.

VARIOUS - CHRISTCHURCH THE MUSIC - 3/5

There’s no question that Christchurch punches above its weight in terms of producing local pop stars. This compilation helps shed light on some of the reasons why, digging up a forty-year legacy of hits from a roll-call of well known local acts from Dinah Lee to Scribe. Also included are lesser-known underground gems that until now have been very difficult to get hold of – including brilliant tracks by The Pin Group and The Gordons. There’s a good spread here from the sixties to today, with a focus on the early/mid-eighties new wave heyday. There’s been some attempt to separate the glossy pop on disc one from the underground rock on disc two, but distinctions along these lines will always be problematic - a simple chronology would have sufficed. The liner notes make for a rewarding read, revealing the love that’s gone into this package. Take for example the story of Chants R&B’s Australian vocalist being getting busted AWOL from the Air Force, or Iggy Pop joining the Androidss on stage in a Lyttelton pub. It’s hard to imagine many listeners who will appreciate everything here, but what ‘Christchurch The Music’ lacks in coherent focus it more than makes up for in its encyclopaedic 45-song scope.