fish
i saw this song played live for the very first time back in the 90's at sammys in dunedin... me and my best buddy sitting upstairs there, in the front row, after a particularly good session... i think it's inspired nearly everything i've played on guitar ever since...
dennis hopper R.I.P.
not much to say really... one of the greats is gone... heres my top 5 dennis hopper films...
1. blue velvet
2. easy rider
3. the texas chainsaw massacre part 2
4. apocalypse now
5. rivers edge
and while we are at it, heres frank booths best quotes from blue velvet... children, close your ears...
“heineken? fuck that shit! pabst blue ribbon!”
“let’s fuck! i’ll fuck anything that moves, hahahaha!”
“suave! goddamn you’re one suave fucker!”
“don’t you fucking look at me!”
“no i want you to fuck it. shit, yes, pour the fuckin’ beer!”
“i’ll send you a love letter! straight from my heart, fucker!”
“you know what a love letter is? it’s a bullet from a fucking gun, fucker!”
“here’s to your fuck!”
“fuck you, you fucking fuck!”
“something the fuck else”
LOST... the final
i knew after the first hour of the final episode of LOST that this was not going to be an episode where all questions would be answered... i stepped back from it at that point and saw it for what it was going to be... the final episode of one of my favorite tv shows ever... i stepped back in my mind far enough to see the big picture of what LOST was actually about, to me anyway... i worked out long ago that it was about people who were lost... either in the real world or in some parallel universe... it didn't matter... LOST in the end wasn't really about the plot twists and the confusion... it was about people... it was about great characters...
when i read an interview the week before the final episode, the creators talked about their favorite tv finales... the sopranos and M*A*S*H* were both mentioned... they talked about how M*A*S*H* ended and how emotional it was when the helicopter took off at the end and the word 'goodbye' was written on the helicopter pad... i remember that ending from when i was a kid and even then, before i really knew anything about saying goodbye to friends that i had known for a long time or losing important people in my life, that still struck a chord with me and i remember feeling really sad... and i didn't feel that same sadness in the final of macgyver... man, i can't even remember what happened in the final of macgyver... i'm going off track here...
anyway, so basically i was expecting a cross between the two of those finals... and that's what i got... something emotional like M*A*S*H*, and then also, the death of the main character like in the final of the sopranos... luckily there was no helicopter taking off and hurley had not written 'goodbye' in the sand, although saying that, when jack was laying in the bamboo dying, the plane did fly over and i guess in his mind he was saying goodbye to whoever made it onto the plane...
my favorite scene was the scene with jack and his dad in the church when jack finally faces up to the fact he was dead... i thought that matthew fox was great in this episode and i am glad that he had such a big role to play in the final... that scene really got to me, and although right from the start of the show one of the popular theories was that they were all dead and in purgatory, this didn't lessen the impact of a scene where a dead father comes to his son and tells him he's dead too, and it's time to let go... think about it... it's frikkin' heavy... and like with all the best episodes of LOST, like that other great final episode where a bearded f@#ked up jack meets kate in the night and tells her that they should have never left the island, it left me with a weird feeling in my stomach, like those events had actually taken place, and i was somehow emotionally involved in their journey too...
at the end of it all we won't have all the answers and maybe it doesn't actually matter and that's not what life is all about anyway... it's not going to be about knowing everything and understanding why something has happened, it is actually going to be about flashbacks in your mind of the important people you have come across in your life and people that you have loved and the memories of those people that you will take with you to your grave...
maybe i'm taking this show waaaaaay to fukkin' seriously here, but when i woke up the morning after the final, i did actually feel a bit weird... slightly empty... like i had said goodbye to some friends or something the night before, knowing that i would most likely never see them again... and that, to me, is the power of tv and that is why most homes in the western world have a box in the corner of their lounge with moving pictures and sound coming out of it... it should be for viewing shows like LOST and not to watch keeping up the motherf@#king kardashians or private motherf@#king practice...
even if you were let down by the final episode or not, LOST was one of the best tv shows ever made, and in years to come i am sure people will look back on it as one of the great shows of all time, as something truly original and unique... i wish that i myself could travel into a parallel universe where i had never seen an episode before and watch it all over again right from the start...
i have worked out on my calculator that it would take roughly six days to sit down and watch all 121 episodes back to back... i'm not ruling that out as a future project...
anyway here's something clever and funny after all that...
and heres another good LOST blog...
grinderman live
if you were going to be in a band in your dreams surely that band would have to be grinderman... these guys are just badass all over... they have everything i love in a band... suits, facial hair and noise... fuck yes... give it to me...
i dunno...
... who all these folks are... i only know the guy in the middle, and i am a big fan... that's joel mchale who hosts the soup on the E channel... okay okay, yeah i watch the f@#kin' E channel... it's mind-numbingly great... theres a few things on there i avoid like the plague of course... i don't watch those kardasian bitches... i'd rather have needles stuck in my ear drums than even hear them speak, let alone watch their talentless, pitiful, big bummed, c-grade celebrity, scripted in hell, pathetic as shit lives unfold in front of me... but i do watch the soup... it's great... and joel mchale is a shining light on that channel... mostly because it takes the living piss out of everything on the E channel and no celebrity is safe... if punk rock was a half hour tv show on the E channel it would be the soup...
mr eko
i will share my thoughts about the final of LOST a bit later on, but one of my first thoughts is 'where the f@#k was mr eko?'
i reckon...
... john mayer looks trapped here... there doesn't look like an exit at the end of that row of guitars... there's no way he could get out that window as it's got bars on it... i think i could take him... and smash him over the head with all his guitars for writing that song 'your body is a wonderland'... i reckon i could...
son of dave
this guy is pretty great... i'd love to see him hook up and play some tunes with seasick steve...
angelina jolie
i was once obsessed...
i admit it... i wrote the song... i sang it over and over again at shows... i even thought that one day she might even hear it... but as time has gone by, i realise how foolish i was and it was never going to work out between us...
but the one thing that used to piss me off was people saying that angelina's lips were not real... that they were pumped full of collagen... and i knew that they were not full of collagen... i knew in my heart that they were real... and this photo proves it... i don't know how old she is here but the lips are the same and i know her dad may be a bit of a headcase but her mum seemed really nice and she did not seem like the type to let her teenage daughter get he face pumped full of animal fat or whatever that shit is...
i was once obsessed...
pants on the ground
okay so the american idol final was on last night... i have to admit i am a fan... maybe not of the music so much, even though i love bad covers, but i do like the show... it's kind of like watching the state of music today wrapped up in a tidy two hour package... it's totally fascinating to me... they wheeled out all the oldies last night... hall and oates, alice cooper, the bee gees, joe cocker, chicago (i had to get up and make an excuse not to be subjected to that medley i have to admit) and it was also simon cowells last show... and i love simon cowell... i think he is really funny with his comments and his shirts almost open to the navel... i have a secret dream to be judged by him... i would love to know what he thought of my version of 'my heart will go on'...
i was slightly disappointed by the winner, lee de-borning-as-fuck... he was creamed in the lead up show by crystal bowersox, especially in her last song and i think everyone knew it... except of course the american public at large... who love boring... they love that bland rock type voice like the mayers of this world... i mean david cook... come on... yawn... that guy should not be famous for singing... maybe for making coffee or being the worlds best waiter or something but it's a crime against music that some of these people get to make records for a living... but hey whatever it was a great end to the season, and it will not be the same without simon cowell and i do wonder what that will mean for the show, but the song of the night had to be 'pants on the ground' by general larry platt... this song is huge in our house and it's a song i wish i had written... this guy is amazing and he deserves everything good thats coming at him... i just hope he owns the rights to the song...
i was slightly disappointed by the winner, lee de-borning-as-fuck... he was creamed in the lead up show by crystal bowersox, especially in her last song and i think everyone knew it... except of course the american public at large... who love boring... they love that bland rock type voice like the mayers of this world... i mean david cook... come on... yawn... that guy should not be famous for singing... maybe for making coffee or being the worlds best waiter or something but it's a crime against music that some of these people get to make records for a living... but hey whatever it was a great end to the season, and it will not be the same without simon cowell and i do wonder what that will mean for the show, but the song of the night had to be 'pants on the ground' by general larry platt... this song is huge in our house and it's a song i wish i had written... this guy is amazing and he deserves everything good thats coming at him... i just hope he owns the rights to the song...
neutral milk hotel
jeff mangum is one of my favorite songwriters... in the aeroplane over the sea by his band, neutral milk hotel, is one of my favorite records of all time... even just for the first two songs alone, the king of carrot flowers parts one two and three, that come blasting out of the speakers at you... the reason i came across this music was on sunday the 4th of february 2001, i went to the kings arms in auckland to see one of my other all-time heroes, chris knox, play with somebody i had never heard of before, mr jeff mangum... it was one of the best shows i have ever seen and at the end of the night chris and jeff played the john lennon song mother and it ended with jeff doing a handstand on chris' chest while he was lying on the floor in a hail of feedback... mindblowingly wonderous... even the poster for that show was great, and i just have to look at it to fill myself up with memories, music and also events from that time... that show was a turning point for me and it made me realise what sort of musician i wanted to be...
idle hands are the devils play things
some people... they seem to have shit loads of time on their hands to go off and do truly awesome art for the web and thank the lord that they do because websites like this just make a bloke want to smile...
new ep cover
because it's taking me forever to finish my 'fat skeleton' record, i thought i'd crank out an ep... my son has done the cover for this one as well and it's deep as... especially for a 7 year old... i'm looking to have this out on the 18th of june... it will most likely be free on i am evil records...
los angeles
this is a really funny video by flank black for los angeles off his first solo record called 'frank black' from 1993...
bitchin' house art
this is art... this house in houston texas was going to be torn down so artists dan havel and dean ruck turned it into a piece of art a few months before the demolition crews moved in... it's a sad thing that this ended up being demoed because this is amazing...
all work and no play makes jack a dull boy
the shining, as a movie, still creeps me out... i think it's the isolation part that scares me the most... and those creepy twins in the hallway... oh, and that creepy old lady that jack nicholson kisses accidentally... fuck, the whole lot creeps me out actually... it's got to be one of the best horror movies ever made... the last scene where it goes to the photo, where nicholson's character, jack torrance, turns out to be the caretaker that has always been there...
shelley duvall as his, quite literally, long suffering wife is wondrously creepy herself in a tortured, totally tormented and traumatised kind of way... you feel really sorry for her but she's almost too freaky to want to give her a cuddle... and the character played by the great scatman crothers (what a name!!!) who comes all that way in the snow to help out jacks son, danny, just to get an axe in the chest about 5 minutes after he arrives at the hotel... doh!!!
old new york
check out this great blog with heaps of old photos of new york city starting back in about 1885 and moving through till about the 50's or 60's... it's amazing to think that it was a city full of skyscrapers even in the 30's...
jandek
i just discovered this guy on glen hansard's twitter page... there is a pretty stark contrast between these two live songs here... i mean check out the mean as slap bass on the second video... but jandek is my kind of guitar hero... he has released over 60 records... i am liking his hat too... he has some pretty awesome music videos that are well beyond lo-fi... check out his discography here...
clappers
that's eric clapton checking out all those guitars... nice cardigan... he could almost pass for kurt cobain with his hair combed...
top bands of the 80's
while i'm at it i thought i might as well list my top bands from the 80's... some of these bands continued on into the 90's and in the case of sonic youth are still a fully functional mind-blowing live unit... rem are still plugging away but with the loss of drummer bill berry, who chucked it all in to go and live and work on his farm, they have not made any albums to write home about for a while... although saying that, live, they still continue to deliver the goods with a back catalogue to kill for...
okay so here we go... in no real order because i hate order...
1. sonic youth
2. the smiths
3. fugazi
4. rem
5. hüsker dü
okay so here we go... in no real order because i hate order...
1. sonic youth
2. the smiths
3. fugazi
4. rem
5. hüsker dü
makes no sense at all
one of my best buddies emailed me this over the weekend... the same best buddy who kept me awake one night in london (when i had to go to work the next morning on a hellish building site) with a wild one-man hüsker dü sing-a-long party... the funny thing was, i got up and told him to shut the fuck up just as the song 'it's not funny anymore' was playing... looking back i wish that i had have just got up and joined in instead of people the fun-police... i want to make a formal apology for doing that right here... and yeah, these guys ruled the earth back in the 80's, proving that not all music in that decade was as shit everybody made out...
while watching this goodness i came across some solo bob mould... grant hart actually played here in auckland not so long ago in a criminally under-advertised show on a tuesday night... i would have gone for sure...
best google header yet
this google header the other day was beyond awesome... a playable version of pac man... i wonder who comes up with this stuff... is there a team of people or just one really clever guy who comes up with a new idea everyday... whatever, this one is going to take a lot of beating...
wilcos kraken
this is the latest father-son collaboration... the kraken... we are big fans of the kraken... wilco drew it and i coloured it in...
the night they drove old dixie down
i was watching one of the 'classic albums' documentaries they other night about the band and this song really got to me... it's such a great song and for some reason the chord changes just get me every time... it's just epic and sad all at the same time...
while searching i also found this criminally short johnny cash version...
the national on letterman
i have not heard a lot of these fullas but this was pretty rockin' the other night on the letterman show... and with john lennon on drums also... phew...
this can't be good for you
this guys jaw must be fukked... one day he won't be able to chew anything and he'll think "why the f@#k did i do all that heavy lifting with my mouth?"
viggo mortensen rules
ever since i saw indian runner in the 90's i have liked viggo mortensen... he was great in that film and since then he's made some great movies... the fight scene in eastern promises has got to be one of the bravest fight scenes ever filmed... he is totally naked and it is one of the most brutal knife fights i've seen in a movie... it's literally nuts!!!
anyway i saw the road the other night and it is as bleak as hell and totally brilliant... as a parent it takes you to places in your head that you don't ever want to go... to a place that is not that out of the realms of possibility... it scared me to think that i might ever have to face that reality with my son or, even worse, my son and my daughter... even just the thought of staying alive as long as humanly possible to look after them really rang true to me... you want to live forever but the fact of the matter is that you won't, so you just want to be in a place where you know your kids are going to be okay when you are gone...
okay, ummmmm anyway... i might go and get myself a coffee...
nick oliveri fanboy
i played a show with nick oliveri last year and even though i felt like a total fukking dick for asking i got my photo with him at the end of the night... he was awesome... he played an acoustic guitar through a fender twin and it sounded mind blowing... and his voice was incredible... i played the auckland show and boss christ played the wellington show... you need to check out boss christ and you need to check him out now...
rick rubin interview
this is a pretty good rick rubin interview i came across on some nerdy music production website...
and to set the scene i managed to track down a photo of him in his library as well where the interview was conducted...
hows that for nerdy???
hurt knee
i don't know what i've done but i've hurt my knee... it just popped the fuck out...
it can't be an old sports injury because i've never really played sports... not in the last 20 years anyway... and unless i have selective memory loss, i can't remember being in any battles lately so i can't put it down to an old war wound playing up... so maybe it's just one of those "it's your turn to have an injury" injuries... it makes me realise how important your legs are for walking... you can't actually walk without them... i'm not at that stage yet but i always like to think worst case scenario and then when i find out whats really wrong i am happily surprised when it's not as bad as i thought it was... but, yeah, i think it's popped out or something... no knees ups for me until i get to the bottom of it...
just thought you should know... just incase you were wondering...
billy corgan and uli jon roth
i have not watched these yet but they look pretty darn interesting... all i know about uli jon roth is that he was in the scorpions and we have the same date of birth... 18th of december... i'm sure i'll know more about the man after i watch these...
billy corgan stratocaster
i guess you know you are cool when you have your own signature guitar... this guitar looks pretty cool... although i favor japanese models that are a quarter of the price of this... but yeah, it all comes back to that disposable income thing really doesn't it... i'd fukkin' love one of these...
long ago... was so long ago
these michael lavine photographs make it seem like the 1990's were years ago... well... i guess it was years ago... actually i don't want to think about it... it will make me realise how old i am getting... or how old i have gotten already...
instead just go and check out michael lavines website and michael lavines blog... both are filled to the brim with awesomeness...