And in this dream, Depeche Mode recorded an acoustic album, made up songs written by Paul McCartney (music) and Mark Mothersbaugh (words). Weird… but awesome.

I’m close to finishing the Radio Over Moscow recordings. Might see if Rob’s keen to do the The Purpose of Man vocals while he’s up here for my Planet of the Apes Mid-Winter Movie Marathon (yes, it deserves capitals).

And lastly, my latest entry on Eight Track Mind is about NZ Music Month.

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

And I don’t mean making a blog entry while I’m at work, though that shouldn’t be ruled out - it’s my new blog at 3news.co.nz, so it’s literally a blog at work. It’s about… go have a read, and you’ll see. RSS/Atom feed also available.

I was planning my next entry to be all about a genius idea the local bus companies should implement immediately, that will vastly increase the number of users, but that will have to wait. ‘Cause I’m blogging at work…

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

So I ah, changed my LJ layout. Not that any of you would even notice, right? Actually, it looks kinda like my previous one from back in '05/'06, but with bigger writing and less contrast. No matter what I envision when I start a redesign, it always ends up looking kind of the same. I wish I could get a tag cloud or something added though. All the layouts with tag clouds suck. Not that any of you would even see it, right?

It's late. The bike people are sending me new bike tubes, until then I'm walking home, as us online staff don't get paid-for taxis like everyone else on late shift. I've no idea why, apparently it's been brought up several times and always declined. I'd fake a mugging, but the place is full of journalists, so they'll find me out one way or another.

Tomorrow I hope not to be woken up by a) a tradesman banging on the door at 8.15am, or b) neighbours yelling at each other be quiet/wake up, or c) cats, or d) parents yelling at their kids to go to school, or e) car stereos, or f) anything at all. I want to be alert when I get up, so I can start teaching myself how to use the drum software I acquired a few weeks. Failing that, I'll just have to fight a few more wars on Battlefront II.

It's really late, but I can't go to sleep right away after such a long walk. Another 15 minutes hopefully. It'll be 1.45am then, and I should get at least five hours sleep before Tariqa's alarm gives me my first wake-up-call of an inevitable three.

I want to respond to all the morons crying "nanny state!" about a school banning birthday cakes on the Herald's website, and say something along the lines of, "This is your chance to exercise your freedom of choice and let the market take care of itself by shifting your kid to a different school," but every time I try to log in, it tells me: "403 Forbidden. Cross Site Request Forgery detected. Request aborted."

I think this is either the Herald's way of telling me the don't need my sarcastic commentary, or the universe's way of telling me I have better things to do. The realist in me is inclined to think it's the latter, the fighter in me the former, while the geek in me just thinks they should fix their freakin' website, lest it be overrun with nerds who know what they are doing.

Actually, that doesn't sound too bad. While they're at it, they should totally Rickroll the entire Your Views section.

Ryan Adams is ruining my friends page. Two days without checking it, and I have to click through four pages of posts to read everything...

I'm not sure how to link to Ryan Adams' latest blog posts, as there are several (a common phrase when describing Ryan Adams' anything) and they're likely to be deleted by the time you read this, so you won't even see them unless they're in your RSS/LJ friends etc,  but they remind me so much of how I used to blog... when I first started. That urge to get everything you ever thought about everything out there... opinions, rants and twitter/facebook status updates in the form of complete entries before facebook/twitter existed... the morning-after regrets, etc etc etc. They're all there, updated and deleted so quickly on http://dradamsfilms.com/ it's impossible to realistically keep up - like, I doubt he has a day job and all. In his latest sequence of posts, he's managed to appreciate personalities and pieces as varied as Morrissey, Sonic Youth's Sister, Ayn Rand, Nas, some dude whose identity I'd have no idea and the humble typewriter, which he claims "builds character, does not lose files, makes great racket".

Having once owned a typewriter on which I laid down "permanent" versions of songs, before I owned a computer and a  decent compartmented folder, I'd also like to add to Ryan's list, in regards to typewriters, "initially cheap but expensive to maintain, unreliable, would lock up if you typed too fast and so loud i had to set it up in the front lawn as not to piss off my flatmates".

Pen and paper still rules. That, and as I've discovered tonight, laying down demos. I've been through my digital studio thing, marking down what to keep and what to delete, as it keeps running out of space. Loads to delete of course, finished off recordings from the past three years and whatnot.. but I found a few songs I'd forgotten about, or never finished, or which contain vital ideas for future versions... but most importantly, loads of crap I can delete to make way for new material.

But hearing Effortlessly, a song I quickly realised was a masterpiece (by my own standards, which are significantly below McCartney's) but never managed to record satisfactorily when it was written (in 2005), reminded me how many songs I still have lying around in limbo I have to release somehow. For those of you who know my stuff, imagine a song as tuneful and accessible as Sleepless, but with the depth of Johnny Cash, odd lyrics that are halfway between Bernard Sumner, Matt Bellamy, Nicky Wire and Rivers Cuomo, and a keyboard melody straight from Weezer or the Human League... alright, I've gone too far now. That's enough. The song gave me sleepless (no pun intended) nights back in 2005, I don't want them to start again - especially since this new song I've penned (with Raid Over Moscow in mind), Stop It, is giving me similar jitters!

Okay, so I stole that headline straight from fark.com, a site where the headlines are usually humorous in nature; it's a cruel irony I suppose this one is no joke. How many times do we have to tell people it's not about smacking, it's about stopping people who beat their children senseless using the "I'm the parent, I can do what I want" defence in court?

That's right, it doesn't really matter how many times we say it, because papers like the Herald are never going admit Labour did something right.

Grrr!

I've been proofing all week at Groove (look out for an article tangentially about MC Stormtroopa), was planning to spend this week working on demos for a potential new band Marty and I gonna try and form, but money is good too. I had a job interview at TV3 on Monday and was told I'd most likely be called back for a second interview, so that'd be awesome.

Anyway, this potential new band needs a name. We're hoping to find something along the lines of a cool 1980s computer game, and have whittled it down to two. One is better, and probably would suit the idea we have more, but is quite well-known and no doubt taken a million times over already - Paradroid. The other is cool, and would make a good Pitchfork/late-2000s-indie band name, but that's not the kind of band we're gonna be, but it's cool regardless - Raid Over Moscow. Any suggestions? The songs I have in mind are a mix of some of what we used to play in SAM/Slow Learner/Vetox, and mroe recent ones, obviously. Start with three of us, keep it loose and simple, then develop from there. Starting a band is the hardest part, and I don't want to start dealing with extra guitarists and keyboardists and triangulators till we've proved to ourselves the band is worth pursuing. I've no idea how good a bassist Marty is, but he's an okay guitarist so yeah. Grunge-pop for the win.

I'm going to re-kickoff my Fighting Fantasy blog, Fighting Dantasy (get it? lol). I'll start with pretty much the same two posts I did back when I tried it the first time (April or May last year) then get stuck in further this time, honest! It's empty at the time of writing though. Will get on it tonight perhaps. I'll consider switching to Joomla (anyone used it?) or Wordpress or something later on, if it's worthwhile, will stay at budget ol' blogspot till then.

So how about that cricket the other day? 300 deliveries apiece, seven hours of cricket, and both NZ and England manage to score a massive 340 runs. Insane. By far the highest scoring draw in ODI history, and if NZ had managed to score two off the last ball, instead of one, it would've been the third highest run chase of all time, and meant they 4 of the top 5 chases, while they currently only have a meager 3 :p


Top Albums of the Last Fortnight!

1. The Replacements - Tim
2. Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning
3. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
4. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
5. Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
6. Radiohead - In Rainbows

My latest entry for the CityBeat blog is on Scientology - it's even crazier than I remember.

Also, the alt.country music site I did for one of my papers, Alt.Country Calendar, is now online. Of course, it's a little out of date now, but it has interviews with Auckland's Bear Cat and Htown's R William Murphy, as well as reviews of Ryan Adams and The Clientele.

Word.

Question: do most of you read my blog in your friends pages, or come here specifically? I'm thinking of doing a re-design, but is it worth it?

So is the new layout any good? Firefox and/or LJ was being a biatch and making options appear and disappear at will, so it was a bit of a mission. Then I ended up settling on this layout where it wouldn't let me make any red anywhere. Hmmm.

We had a shocker of a gig at the Masonic last night - what could go wrong, did, almost. Firstly, none of us bands got a soundcheck, cause that would have scared away the rugby watching punters. Then, it turned out the sound guy didn't know what he was doing - for the first band, the vocals had more bass in them than the bass guitar, which was barely audible. The guitars were an indistinct mess. And the bands upstairs could be heard through the ceiling.

When we played, John was cramped up against the wall, and could barely keep a hold of his sticks. Kent's strap broke mid song. We tuned down a song too early without John realising, so played the second to last song in the wrong key. I managed to retune back up somehow, only to find myself in the wrong key for the actual last song. And overall, we were pretty damn loose.

Lucky it was just a gig in front of a few North Shore kids and some rugbys, huh? It's 10pm on Saturday night now, and I'm waiting for Kent to turn up as we're playing at a Fleet FM gig, at 3.20am. Yep. AM. There are something like 15 bands at this thing apparently. I've been tired all day, and am looking forward to much sugar-free V consumption to keep me awake till then. If not alert.

Speaking of V and the like, I went to the doctor a few days ago to get some more Losec. It's a heartburn medication, perhaps the most effective medication for anything I've ever taken. It prevents all problems associated with heartburn 100% with no side-effects, it's crazy. If you don't know what heartburn is, it's not as scary as it sounds. Like, it doesn't mean your heart is literally on fire or anything. In fact, it's got nothing to do with your heart, so yeah. It's basically just acid from your stomach coming up your oesophagus, causing discomfort in the back of your throat, particularly at night, or when you lie down.

Anyway... so I got some more of that, and the doctor talked about possible causes - alcohol, spicy food, too much food, sugary drinks, non-sugary but still carbonated drinks, caffeine - you know, everything I happen to like. These things don't cause any problems while I'm taking the Losec though.

 Alternatively, it could be an oesophageal hernia. That's where the top of your stomach sticks up a bit through your diagram, making it easier for acid to come up. It's highly unlikely, but how they fix it is by some kind of wrapping procedure. I can't remember exactly what, but one of the downsides of that is you can never vomit again. I didn't quite catch whether that was a fact or an order, come to think of it. But if alcohol is one of the things to avoid in order to prevent it occuring, what reason would I have to vomit anyway!? Haha. Anyway, she told me to lose weight too. That'll help eliminate the heartburn once the current prescription of Losec wears off. I told her I'm now going for long walks a few times a week, or at least trying to. "That's great," she said, "but make them runs". D'oh.

But being in a band, I'm constantly being offered free beer. Well, not constantly, but more than I'd otherwise be given. Well, I suppose all this won't happen overnight... but at least I've started. And if I'm going to play a gig at half past three in the fucking morning (which'll probably end up being half past fucking four), air and water alone isn't going to keep me awake!

I don't care if tariqa proved it can be done, it just can't!

Astronomers have discovered a planet which is half fire, and half ice. This cannot end well...

But it seems since I last updated the look of this LJ, the powers that be have completely fucked the editing options. Every time I go to take a glimpse at what I've changed, the settings I've altered default back to the err, defaults, and I have to start again. Which isn't good for tweaking at all.

Just a quick note to say I'm mildly annoyed my old blog from late 2003 - mid/late 2004 seems to have vanished off the face of the intertubes. Fingers crossed it's still on their servers somewhere.

Secondly, I had a minor operation done on my toe this morning, and tomorrow I'm gonna have gory pic goodness of the aftermath. Don't say you haven't been warned.

Sometimes I wonder what I'd do if one day I went to log onto LJ and it was gone. Like, no longer on the interwebs - gone with all my posts and everything. I'd probably kill someone. Perhaps that donkey.


Anyway, so I'm on the late shift tonight. Tomorrow after work, the staff at the store down the road are going to be transporting ALL the stock and gears down here, as it's their last day open. I wonder who's gonna cover my breaks from here on... have to see I spose. I wonder which of them will end up working down here too. All the girls down there (bar the manager) are emo kids, and will probably struggle down here, where we need to actually know about music in order to sell stuff, being a semi-specialist shop.


Bought me a bike a couple of days ago, woo. So now if I'm running late for work, I'm not. First day, took me seven and a half minutes to get from home to work, which is far off my best from the old place - five minutes and five seconds - but not a bad start. Annoying thing is despite work being far lower in altitude to where we live, I still have to go uphill at some point, which is a backbreaker at the moment, I'm so unfit. BUT... I still plan to attempt to bike to these hills I can see over the harbour, somewhere on the North Shore. Problem is, once I'm on the ground, I probably won't recognise them. Actually, the real problem is I can barely ride the 50m up the hill to K Rd without getting off and walking at the moment.


Other thing I bought? A couch. Two, actually, on special. You know why I think they were so cheap? Cause they didn't pay anyone to write a decent set of instructions. I mean, when the construction of an entire couch is laid out in only FIVE steps, one of them being basically, 'attach back to seat' in as many words, you know it isn't going to be much use. Took me the entirety of Muse's discography (except Absolution, but including Hullaballoo) to construct the two.


Did I say I finished the backing tracks for the concept album? Yay. Began recording some new stuff already, as I'm not sure when I'll get the concept album completely done. Was working on this song I first wrote in 1999, then rearranged and rewrote last year into something entirely new - gave it this mean, face-melting guitar solo, worked on it for an hour or so trying to get the perfect take, then finally, FINALLY managed a good one, with an accidental Eddie Van Halen pinch harmonic at the end! Then, I decided the face-melting angle wasn't one that really suited the song, and dropped it.


Anyone watching Rockstar? Lukas has so got it wrapped up. The South African girl might have a chance, but I'm not convinced her voice is versatile enough... anyway...



TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF THE WEEK!


1. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
2. James Dean Bradfield - The Great Western
3. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
4. Decemberists - Picaresque
5. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country