Thom's Leaving

So I made him this cover art for a mixtape he's making for people that come to this gig on saturday with ALL OF THE BANDS IN CHRISTCHURCH but he's asleep. So I'll post it online.

It's pretty cool. Lot's of colour. I like the cat in it.




If you come to the gig and pay ten dollars instead of five you'll get a cd with all the bands that looks like this. Do come. Really.

SMOKEY GHOST

Oli and Callum have been productive.

Introducing a track by Hans Pucket.

(artwork by me)

Smokey Ghost

Thanks Thom.

Reminder

Shit's been getting kind of real lately, which has been super lame. In the midst of all the stress and horror and depression and angst you kind of forget the simple things that can really help. Like listening to music.

I HAVEN'T BEEN LISTENING TO MUSIC.

How did I not spot this??

Anyway, Oli downloaded Smith Westerns' Dye It Blonde for me, and seriously, within the first three seconds of the first track I remembered...

MUSIC IS AWESOME.

Really.

I feel better now.

Bitch; Please

Both Steven AND my brother Oli made posters for Bitch; Please.

(being our new band. Pretty sweet. We played at Gorgeous George almost a year ago, but are doing our first grown up gig this Friday at WEHQ (yay for acronyms!))

I decided to join the wagon and make one too, and out do them (naturally).

AND I did it in two minutes.

AND I cheated. The wire lettering was made by Steven when we started the band. The picture of the tiger is from Oli's calendar. But their combination... GENIUS!

Like vanilla and coke.
Or cheese and anything.



For tunes: Bitch; Please bandcamp, and the gig page on facebook.

YAY! See you there.

Do the Drew

When we were in Hamilton for rockquest national finals, we got interviewed by that Drew guy from C4. This was after a number of encounters with TV personnel, having had a mini-doco short thing made about our band in July (iiish?), and filming an episode for the Erin Simpson Show in August (I thiiiink). Overall, the process really told me a lot about how they go about making TV. From what I can assume, it's done quickly, efficiently, with as much forced emotion as possible, and yet with zero to no sentiment. These guys KNOW they're making disposable entertainment. And it's their job to churn it out, all with fake smiles and happy handshakes and best wishes.

It really demystified the whole process for me. I mean, the attitude they had resembled smugness, and yet they constantly put down their jobs. Like, they were aware that what they were doing was seen as exctiting, but like hell they were going to admit that. I dunno, it's really hard to judge their level of enthusiasm, to tell what isn't forced.

I felt sorry for Drew though. He tried soooo hard to be enthusiastic; like, fake smiling and laughing and asking us about our band name and stuff, which always delivers awkard responses from us (not his fault there).

I worry that this sort of happy veil is all these TV guys have got. What happened to the TV presenter people who were legitimately funny, and seemed to actually like their job/were good at it? Happiness is great, but it's not a substitute for humour. Aaah, well.

Anyways, here's an extremely awkward interview that proves none of my points. It's Drew vs. MGMT (he tried SO hard).

Makes Me Glad

I've been listening to The Magic Kids' album Memphis on repeat (WHAT??) for the past week during extreme arting sessions. It just fills me with painless happy happy glad times and washes away the hours of chair-sitting and neck-bending. They're all for the good times, and are promoters of the gf/bf, hand-holding idealogy that is oh-so addictive this time of year.

I found this video of them playing in a backyard somewhere with dozens of children. It makes me feel less worried about being in a band that children like (although, many of these kids seem to be crying). Kids love happy music. I love happy music. I am mostly a child anyway. Why worry about being badass? Let Mike Dirnt worry about that.

Sleight Of Hand

This year for printmaking, I'm using lot's of old images of stage magicians and the like. Through my research I found this video of Hugh Jackman promoting his blasphemic powers of witchcraft.

christmas 2005

Vampire Weekend Trailer from ezra on Vimeo.

Bar Gig Bar - A Review

Dear The Press, heres a review for your reviews section in the paper on Fridays just before the movie photos and adverts and things. I think it will do just the tricket...

On Thursday (yes Thursday) the 13th of May 2010 I was really nervous sitting in my bedroom with Paige and Oli and Alex waiting for it to be late enough for us to go in the car to get to the bar in time for our gig. We waited for AGES. It was nine thirty by the time penisey texted me saying that they were on the way. So I ate a muffin and got in the car. Dad drove us there. In the car we listened to Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs to sike ourselves up. It worked. Alex and Paige walked us into Poplar Lane as I'd never been there before and would get lost if I tried to find it on my own or even with Oli. We just walked straight in! No bouncer or anything. I was relieved. Then we went into the band area room and met the sound guy named Mathew/Ben/Something I can't recall and he was real nice saying that I looked like freddy kruegar and started setting up mics. No one else was there but then Penisey was there and told me he got kicked out of home (SAD :(....) and Thom who was wearing SHOES!! which is a novelty for Thom. And others were there too but I dont know everyones names Im new. Then a surf band called Piha Rescue (geddit?) went up and set up on the stage and I got worried cause Jack said he was tired. He arrived and was all gc about it. His brother and my brother and their friends and my dad and jacks dad were all there to see us. We told them we were on next cause we were. Me and Thom danced to Piha and it was awesome. We did the Twist and had a "Play Fight" and bumped into this guy. They were all wearing sunglasses except for Ben Dodd. WHO is awesome as it happens and Penisey is started a band with him (GOSSIP!). Then they finished and we got to go up and play our songs (AWESOME!) We set up and got water and tuned our guitars and there were quite a few people at the bar including some friendly faces. We played pretty well. Olis guitar string broke two seconds into the first song! LOL! And the vocal mics were condensor mics which was pretty cool I guess. We played Fuck You Courtney, Safety Cheque, LPG Doesn't Grow On Trees Bro, Jessica, I Said To My Girl (She Looked Nice), Evergreen, and then we decided to finish, but Ben Dodd stuck his fluffy head in the window and said "play that Jazzy one" which we took to mean Cake, and so we did. It was well sick and everyone danced really well and clapped very loudly. It was very good fun and I was pretty tired as it was twenty to twelve. Paige seemed happy too which was awesome as Paige is wicked. Alex took photos (see below) for us which was nice of her. They came out topps. We didn't get to stay for Lonely Harris Club. But they were my favourites anyway. I was well gutted cause I heard they did a Strange Boys cover and I love them. I gave John a hug as we left though, and said thanks. He replied "Oh no worries. I really hope we go allright...Sorry for not dancing to your set. I'm not sure if I can play my guitar at the moment." But he did. I give the gig a wild 7 stars!! * * * * * * *

Photo Bear

Lovely Alex took some photos of our band playing our first bar gig and standing akwardly on some grass and in a tree. I got to scan them! It was mean! The gig was at GBM with Lonely Harris Club and Piha Rescue, two wickedly awesome bands. And I'm not just saying that because they gave us reason to stay up past 10 on a school night.

Disposables

Heres some of the photos taken off my disposable camera. It follows the days after my birthday and up until the eep a gig. Theres a real nice one of my parents. Thanks Alex for an awesome birthday present!





And yes. My birthday was as fun as it looks.

I and Steven Made A Poster

why parades kick ass... when your in them.

During the santa parade on Sunday I strapped my camera to my belt loop so I wouldnt drop it, then sneakily took lots of photos to show Paige, and you too. So here's why being in a parade is significantly awesomer than watching them...

Heres some sick action shots of me and Oli running down Moorehouse Ave because we were late.

We found some other little guys from our band and so they ran away from their mothers to join in on secret awesome mission. Olis the one in the jeans. Notice how the little guys overtake us.

These little kids did not enjoy the loudness of the Samba band.

This is us marching down the middle of Columbo St. Yeah.

BOOOOM!!!

Fuck yeah.

HAPPY ONE MONTH!!!

Happy One Month Anniversary bloggers! So far the blog is going quite well. I shall give it three bold L's (for Lapse) out of five...

L L L * *

I know what you're thinking, and yes I agree. Three L's in a cop out. When you rate three out of five, you don't really like something but you don't want to admit it to their face. Everyone knows that.

To celebrate, the band went out and played our first gig in ages ...at Zebedees. Oli doens't like Zebedees, but its where everyone starts. It where you go when you're to slack too organise proper shows. I enjoyed the show but left feeling very self conscious of our band. We were the odd band out. We had non straightened hair, no hats on, we play with too many chords, and we dont have names like Matt and Nick and Jacko. We have names like Jack Callum and Oli. Which is similar but importantly different.

I like Zebedees. Its familiar, like that uncle you only see at Christmas and always gives you colouring in books even though you havent been 8 for a while. AND plus there's one nice guy and one not nice guy who run it, which is even and I like even.

I rate Zebedees 3 out of 5

L L L * *

ps. I had a funny photo of jack standing outside Zebedees but I cant find the camera chord. So heres a picture of Danny Lee. But dont go thinking I like golf (or steam). He's celebrating too.

pps. I've almost finished my art folio. It's due monday. For people who don't know me well, this is my big thing for the year. And twelve credits too. I'm going in to school tomorow (SATURDAY?!?!) to paint so il take some photos to show you... if I can find the damn chord!!

Something good I got out of today...

“To explain the creative musician’s basic objective in elementary terms, I would say that a composer writes music to express and communicate and put down in permanent from certain thoughts, emotions and states of being. These thoughts and emotions are gradually formed by the contact of the composer’s personality with the world in which he lives. He expresses these thoughts (musical ones...) in the musical language of his own time. The resultant work of art should speak to men and women of the artist’s own time with a directness and immediacy of communicative power that no previous art expression can give.”

Aaron Copland

Saltarello

"One of the most popular medieval dances was the salterello. Whereas an estampie my have been a stamping dance, a saltarello was a sprightly hopping and jumping dance (salterello is Italian for 'little hop')."




This is what my day has consisted of. With more to come.

Sorry Sean...

Woah. Just got back from a super sick So So Modern gig at the Media Club. First gig ive been to in ages. Its great to see such a mint band playing an all ages gig (on the same night as a r18 gig at Goodbye Blue Monday... respect) but also, actually enjoying it. Sleepy Age were first up. For a really solid band playing some enjoyable dancey music, they didn't seem that pleased to be playing. They seemed sarcastic and akward. Okay sure, they had a rather small audience (it was a pretty early show... it started ten to seven) and il admit, little indie scenesters aren't exactly the most responsive audience. It's just a shame really that some bands dont give it their all for an audience of kids. Thank god we have people like Disasteradio.

Out of my top 5 concert experiences, 3 of them feature Disasteradio. Sooo much freaking fun. You've got to admire a person who can make an entire audience go monkey fucking nuts in dancing pleasure.... all by himself! Love him. Disasteradio... never change.

I hadn't really seen much of So So Modern. I stupidly missed out on their last gig because of ....something (cant remember... I think it was Scriptless). So slick, so exciting... dangerous and yet hypnotically comforting, their music is sharp and electronic but still maintaining that live power through guitars that is missing from electronica. So So Modern are from a distant future where humans have mastered guitar skills and sculpt sound through crazed effects boards. Man those guys are clever... that shit takes years of hard gigging to get tight.

Well... I know i'll definately be borrowing their new album from Thom.

Now... I need to go paint (will he finish in time???).

Coming up on monday, Ill tell you a new game. It's a goodun.

PINS

I listened to Fleet Foxes last night in bed in the dark. It was amazing. I saw all these wiked shapes and colours in the darkness. When that was over I started listening to Joy Division but the echoey delay on the drums started to freak me out so I turned it off.

Then I had a strange dream last night...but it was really boring and that makes me angry.

There was this coffee table being constructed in front of my eyes. Except it was being held together with massive sewing pins... the one with the round pink ends. Or maybe the pins were normal sized and the table was small.

I got angry that the pins weren't countersunk.

Heres a drawing...

I replayed this over and over, and even in my dream I knew that it was boring. And I imagined typing this blog post about it.

Conclusions...

A. I need to do more with my day.
B. Even my dreams are contrived.

Callum goes Bracket and Hyperlink CRAZY!! (or "It must be Friday")

So Jono's staying over this week.

(History Lesson: Jono's been a friend of mine since like waay back, probably longer than anyone. Well, except Thom of course. But he doesn't count this week because Jono's here now and he went home. We were like a wiked gang back in primary school. A clique maybe. It was pretty cool. It was definately the best clique too. We weren't the cool guys (as they are all jerks) or the nerdy guys (as they were embarassing). We were the middle group. The best group. Well, besides the group of 9 girls who made up the "All of The Girls" group that win by default. We even made movies (which were all badass with fights and shit))

We had a pretty fun week though. Our parents were on their best behavious because we had 'a guest' (Me: "Since WHEN did we eat at the table Mum?" Mum: *Tries to burn a whole through me with her eyes*) and we got wiked food too. Jono worked all day, so me and Oli got some sweet recording done (which are sounding awesome). We went on dates in the evening. On Wednesday we went to Inglourious Basterds (I hope I spelt that right), which as it happens, is the movie I've been waiting to see my whole life. Last night (Thursday) we went to see Poe at the court (which freaked the shit out of me). Jono and Oli wore suit jackets. But Oli was wearing this v neck t shirt and looked sort of stupid. He made a remark about how if anyone asks about it he'll say he's a homosexual. We all laughed. Then mum said he can borrow her scarf. "No mum, thats a pashmina" corrected Oli. We all laughed more. Dad looked worried.

After the play we went to Brigitte's place and made her watch the first Star Wars (which for some ungodly reason she had never seen). As it happens, How I Met Your Mother on tuesday night had a similar plot with Ted forcing that Elliot girl from Scrubs to watch it. On the show Elliot really hated it and made a joke about Chewbacca. But shes a bitch so she doesn't count. Back in reality, Brigitte really liked it. But for some reason she liked The Phantom Menace better (which is a crime). Eli was there too (of course).Turns out he has a rediculous knowledge of Star Wars trivia. This came as quite a shock to the group, as Eli resembles in no way a geek/nerd/star wars trivia buff. He even rides a long board and listens to Nujabes.

After Star Wars we came home and watched the Ladyhawke win a million awards at the NZ Music Awards. We had it taped so we stayed up for ages waiting for the Mint Chicks to play. But it was well worth it. They played She's a Mod with MICHAEL LOGIE on bass. It was awesome. Im a huge fan of Michael Logie, and I wonder if they might bring him back into the band. Oli says if they do that, there might be a chance that they would degress stylistically and become more punkish. But I think that they would put Michaels wiked F in Math work into the mixing pot and create a crazy awesome fucked up pop mess. But you never know with the Mint Chicks. Sadly, despite the unyeildingly awesomeness of Screens, they didn't win any of the awards on the night (up and commers Midnight Youth pinched them. But good on them. They're so young, it must have been crazy exciting. You can almost forgive them for dressing like Tomboys from the 80's).

In other news, that youtube video of Custard Bear at rockquest finally uploaded (after like 2 weeks). Check it out here. (sorry in advance for the sound quality... It was fucking loud.)