there's magic in rainbows

Thanks, Radiohead. Your new album is lovely.

It's really cool- released without the restraint of a record label, yet with the awareness and cretive boundaries of an artist who knows they have to eventually sell it to one.

Radiohead released their new album "in rainbows" on the internet, both as a rather expensive yet special box set, and on MP3 format. For the digital copy, punters can pay "whatever they think it's worth".

How could I know what it's worth before hearing it? If it's like "Hail to the Thief", or "OK Computer", or "the Bends", then it's worth selling my grandmother for. However if it's the sort of rambling bullshit of "Amnesiac", then I wouldn't pay a cent.

So I downloaded it and paid nothing.

Some people have praised Radiohead for sticking it to the man, and have paid up to US$1000 for it. Others, like me, are cheap-asses. Some people had the guilts and paid full cd price for it, only to be pissed off because MP3 quality is not as good as cd. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT???

I figured that if I liked it, I would buy it once it gets released on CD in stores. And of course, that's what they're going to do, they're aiming for January.

Of course they're currently in negotiation with the big four record companies.

Very clever! Get the hype, get some data on how many people would buy the album, then negotiate with the record companies. Unfortunately, there will be some very pissed off fans who have already paid for the album and don't want to pay for it again!

I, however, love the album. It's wicked. It's like they took all the best bits from their previous work, and mashed it up into this lovely album of niceness. It's not whiney, it's not depressing, it's not even all that political. It's just good ol' Radiohead doing what they do, and well.

I highly recommend everyone downloads this album. Just don't pay for it :)

Home is where my heart is...

I miss Auckland. I really do. There's not much more to say.

It's my home, and I am stuck in a little town far far away.

I miss Ponsonby Road, K'rd, Cheltenham beach, Muriwai, Piha...

I miss my friends, I miss my cafes, and I miss the warm weather.


So today I give you some songs about Auckland. I always get all weepy and homesick when I listen to songs about Auckland, because I'm totally lame like that! Join me in my lameness.

I'm a wanker at heart. You can take the wanker out of Auckland, but you can't take Auckland out of the wanker. The coffee just doesn't taste the same without a place to sit and look fabulous while people drive by and look at how fabulous you are.

OMG!!! so much music!!!

I am so excited this week about two big bits of news...

Radiohead's new album, and the first BDO 2008 announcement.

Radiohead have a new album called "In Rainbows", out 10th October. You can buy it as a box set, very swanky, or you can be a cheap bastard like me and take advantage of being able to download it from the official website and pay WHATEVER YOU WANT. That's right, you can be scabby and have it for free if you want. Will I feel at all obliged to pay through guilt? Nah, probably not. However if I do enjoy it, I might just buy the CD. I guess that's what I like about free downloads. If I do like it, I usually go buy it. Nobody really loses any money in the music business.

http://www.inrainbows.com/

and...

check out the first BDO announcement here http://www.bigdayout.com/ it's very exciting. Rage Against The Machine are getting back together to rock our socks off, and the lovely Bjork will once again grace our shores as well. Also serenading us will be Dizzee Rascal, very cool. Yay! Now I just have to figure a way out of this small town, and hitch a ride up to the big smoke to catch the sounds!

back to the 80's

I know, there's Blue Monday, Uptown Girl, The Final Countdown and many more... but I'm sure you'll agree this is right up there.

You've seen the ultimate 90's pop song, (whether or not you agree with me). Here's the equivalent 80's pop song.

I could think harder, and think of one that I like better for different reasons, but this song has to be the one that gets every single person of a certain age singing along and bopping a little bit, thinking about what they wore and who they pashed at the school disco.

and I don't care that it's a cover. That doesn't make it any less legendary.

Back to the 90's

I think this song has to be the ultimate 90's pop song. Not that it's the best pop song of the 90's, nor was it the biggest hit, but it's the song that takes people back there as soon as the first few bars are played.

You see people listening to this song... their eyes glaze over as they think of how cool Rachel, Ross, Monica, Joey and Chandler were the first time around. They think of who they were dating, who their best friend was, and where they were at the time this song was a hit.

http://www.emp3world.com/mp3/36605/Spin%20Doctors/%20Two%20Princes

Teenage Version 2.0

Reeling from the excitement of hearing that there's a new Kylie album coming out shortly and that therefore, there is a god; I'm having a good day. It's raining, and usually that only excites the surly teenagers because apparently it's a good thing when your mascara runs down your face. It's not panda-eyes, it's a fashion statement.


Clearly, I have become old.

Just ask my sister. She's 14 and totally cool. You know, I understand the whole "emo" thing, but at the same time I don't believe in it. All that has happened is that somebody has branded teenage angst, and made an empire. very clever.

The whole thing was said best by this guy on public address.

Anyway I love messing with my sister and her buddies by sending cd's that were cool in the 90's but not mentioning that. Madam received a gift recently of the new Garbage best-of. It's very cool. I bought it for myself, and while listening to it I realised that it could totally pass as "emo" music, other than the fact that it's sung by an angry woman rather than a whiny boy.

I sent it, and apparently now Garbage are a hot new emo band that rock. For kids that supposedly live on the internet, they're easily fooled, aren't they?

video killed the radio star

Fiona McDonald. I used to be your biggest fan. When I was a teenager, you knocked Madonna and Boyz II Men off the NZ music chart. You were so badass and cool, and you were my idol. Everything you touched was gold... Headless Chickens were nothing without you, and you brought Strawpeople out of obscurity and into the radios, tvs and even cd-walkmen of my generation.

But then what happened?

THIS HAPPENED.

You traded your Dr Martens for sensible shoes. You judged NZ Idol, hosted Ten Years Younger, and now you're peddling toilet paper and virtuous domesticity.

The chick I always wished was my big sister, who inspired my rebellion and fuelled my teenage angst has become such a disappointment.

It's so sad what tv can do to someone who was such a radio star. But Fiona, why you? Stevie Nicks isn't selling sugar-free muesli bars, Debbie Harry isn't dressing in cardigans and selling Metamucil.

All I have of you now, Fiona, is the memory of how cool you were.