Why hello there.
Welcome to my musical explorations that I have put up for you to see.
Music is my number 1 love and always will be. This blog is my attempt at sharing some of the things that I love with you. Artists that have changed my life and the ones I wish I could erase from my memory that one time I heard them.
I hope that you can share your opinions on anything I post as well, because knowledge is power and power is the voice.
Cheers Buddy!
Erz
So I have been listening to classic hits recently and a thought occurred to me: if what I am listening to is my parents classic hits, then what would be my generations classic hits?
I took into account that there are some pretty shit songs that would be classified as our classic hits. With this I decided to do the best 25 songs from our generation that in 25 years time we will still remember, and like our parents, be transported back in time.
They are in no particular order, and there are many more. Would love to know if you agree with me
25. Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right (to party)
24. Ben Harper - Burn One Down
23. Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
Patti Smith's autobiography of her and Robert Mapplethorpe took my breath away with it's simplistic beauty and inspiring essence.
The book takes you to New York in the late 60s to early 70s and explores Smith's love/friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith is a remarkable woman with an obvious way with words and poetry as she conjures up a hard life on the streets of Manhatten.
The book follows how they meet on her first day in NY as if they were fated to be in each others lives. On the third time they meet she learns his name is Bob and asks if she can call him Robert.
It is a modern tale of starving artists, and their adventures take them for a brief but profitable stay at the Chelsea Hotel. Slowly things get better for them and they find their voices through their art; Mapplethorpe with collages then photography and Smith with poetry to guitar.
It is a beautifully written insight into the lives of two people who would become very influential in shaping something truly wonderful for history.
I loved every page in this book and inspired me into writing frenzies.
The first time I lost myself to dubstep was when I was 19.
I didn't know what the fuck had hit me or what exactly IT was. But it had a name... and that name was dubstep.
At this present moment, its hard to imagine a time when dubstep was underground, composed with passion and thought, and the people who listened to it loved and understood it.
What I really don't want to happen is for me to come across sounding like a condescending old twat who is condemning the progression of a genre of music that she loves. All I want to do is put across my opinion on what is an inevitable progression of dubstep and how I feel about where it has gone and come from.
Moving to Sydney I have noticed a massive shift in the music scene from NZ. Most places I walk into have shitty house music and RnB tracks playing. And the worst is the type of dubstep playing. The only dubstep I ever hear being played here in the clubs and on the radio is gashy hard core dubstep, which I compare to death metal - a whole bunch of noise with no sound.
I would rather listen to Britney Spears on repeat than listen to gashy dubstep (and thats the bottom of the barrel right there).
Even for the most hating of the dubstep haters I believe there is a song out there for them. To me, dubstep can be a beautiful soundscape to immerse yourself in. So many layers and sounds to get lost in. Burial to me is the epitome of what I classify "The Ultimate" in dubsteppin.
Every time I listen to Burial is a new experience. The songs that I have listened to a thousand times before suddenly make my ears hear a new sound put in the background. Gunshots, breaking glass and reverberating ethereal tones.
When I first started going to dubstep gigs in Auckland, it was still such a new thing on the music scene that nobody really knew what it was or where it was going, but were absolutely loving it and getting excited by what it meant: something new, provocative and different.
Going to gigs where there were about 20-30 people there all dancing like zombies, raising their feet todance moves dubstep evokes. Like minded people all getting lost in something truly amazing.
It quickly grew into one of the "cool" things to be into. With this came a different scene and crowd and a shift in the way of thinking. I went to a Nero gig about 3 years ago and it was full of underage people in the club. Girls dancing on stage, and a completely different atmosphere to what I thought was ideal. It was chaos. To be honest I didnt even stay to watch Nero. I felt as though I was being swallowed up.
I sound like a massive music snob and condescending prick but its watching something you have loved for years being turned into a commercial wasteland of record sales and popularity. But alas, this is progression.
If we push through the fog we can still hear all the amazing artists and DJ's pumping out soul provoking music.
You may or may not agree with me, but this is my opinion.
If I was a celebrity, The 27 club is definatly the lowest on my list, side by side with the Charles Manson club, that I would want to be part of.
It's pretty simple - there are LOADS of deaths of influential musicians at the age of 27.
There are references to Nietzsche's philosophy as it applies to music, astrology and numerology and the findings are that more musicians have died at age 27 than of any other age.
Here's the list, with my fav songs posted underneath.
The latest casualty was the sad passing of one of the greatest singers of our generation -
Amy Winehouse July 23, 2011
COD - Undetermined
Kurt Cobain April 5, 1994
COD - Suicide
Jim Morrison July 3, 1971
COD Heart failure (although no autopsy was done)
Janis Joplin October 4, 1970
COD - Probable heroin overdose
Jimi Hendrix September 18, 1970
COD - Asphyxiation
Brian Jones July 3 1969
COD - Drowned
Robert Johnson August 16, 1938
COD - Unknown
And there are heaps more artists that I didn't even know. freaky shit huh.
I have just watched on the most epic documentaries about Soulwax on tour named 'Part of the Weekend Never Dies'.
All I have to say about this documentary is that the entire time I watched all I wanted to do was jingle and jam my size 8 feet to the hard hitting drums, baseline and synths. After watching this the urge to go to one of their gigs consumed me.
Here's the trailer....
Soulwax is headed by two bangin' Belgian brothers, David & Stephen Dewaele.
The only thing I have ever known from Belgium is its delicious beer. But now I have this. And 'this' being soulwax, isn't a new thing since they have been around since 1992. They are classified as an alternative rock/electronic band, but to me they are pure musical eargasms. Soulwax also has bassist Stefaan Van Leuven and drummer Steve Slingeneyer.
If you got through those couple of sentences and are still going with snoring your shits out then I suggest you watch this doco.
And if it blew my genitals out of the water then its bound to do yours too.
While at work yesterday I was listening to Classic hits (Thanks to my mate bruce, and we are now obsessed), when a sick song I have always loved but never really known came on.
The chef came out and was all like "This is Van Morrison before he hit his solo career with the band called 'Them'. Something I did not know but was stoked to learn.
Morrison left the band in 1966 to go onto a very successful career.
The band was formed in 1964 in Belfast. The original band consisted of Morrison, Ronnie Millings, Alan Henderson, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon.
This song never fails to send shivers of 1960's amazingness down my jiggling spine.
So, why don't I share my love with other people? And now here I am. Writing and sharing with you.
A little bit about me, I was born in Canada, lived in the States, then to New zealand for 10 years and in June moved to Sydney, Australia, where the music scene is worse than a pile of dried up dog crap. Im willing to be proved wrong.
Coming from small NZ where the music scene is pretty big and amazing to shitty house tracks and gashy hardcore dubstep being played in all the clubs, I choose my computer and internet.
So today I am going to start with....
MUSIC FACT OF THE DAY, TODAY #1
In 1969 Patti Smith met renowned poet Allen Ginsberg at The Automat in New York City where he mistook her for a boy and bought her a sandwhich. He then realized she was just an androgynous looking woman and that what he had planned wasn't going to happen.
I read about this in Patti Smith's novel, 'Just Kids', which is one of the best books I have read and well worth the read.
Patti Smith in all her amazingness
This song is 'Gloria' and it is from Smith's 1975 album Horses. It is based on Morrison's tune Gloria but the lyrics are reinvented to the new punk movement and Smtih's obvious talent for poetry. This version uses only the origional chorus and has the sickest intro.. "Jesus died for somebody's sins/ but not mine".
