Music is important to me. I don't play an instrument, but I like to listen.
At varsity in Dunedin the gigs kept me warm.
Over the years I built up my record collection, boxes and boxes of LP's, EP's and 7 inch singles, only to lose everything in a burglary.
Travel and family commitments intervened. Time passed. CD's replaced records, and records gave way to MP3's.
I miss records.
A disk crash deleted the MP3 collection, and I started again from scratch.
Starting again was difficult. I found myself buying the same music. Boring. I read music magazines to find out what I might like, but I didn't learn much. The radio wasn't much better. I visited record stores but just got lost, rows of bands I had never heard of.
I resolved to spend 12 months listening to as much music as I could; where possible avoiding bands that I knew, trying to find out what was out there, and what I liked.
By 2007 there was no shortage of music to listen to. Music blogs share the tastes of 1000's of music lovers. I joined Emusic.
To keep track I burn MixCd's, 21st Century mixtapes. The CD's catalogue my exploring. I give them to friends. Sometimes they email me back with comments and suggest other bands to listen to.
Six years on here is a website to share my love of music.
Ross Upchurch (this is not him) was from sunny Wainui Beach. He was (and hopefully still is) a laid back surfer. In the 1980’s he was studying art at Otago University. We took him skiing to Queenstown. I was there when he saw his first snow. Looking up at the Remarkables laced in snow he was overcome. “It’s just like a breaking wave” he said.
My surfing memories involve knee boarding the wild surf at Colac Bay and then struggling to build a fire so we could eat baked beans out of a can. I used to hang out at the Skating Rink at Riverton. At night they blasted loud, distorted Beach Boys tracks and lots of surf guitar into the dark.
I am sure there is a surf film in there somewhere. Here is the soundtrack.
Still noodling around getting the mellower mixes ready. Meantime, here is a mix to play loud, or it will be once I get the tracks into the interweb. Some guitar shredding, some C86 girrl bands, and general loud mayhem.
1) Love Fade (Tamaryn) Kiwi living USA – excellent shoegazey stuff.
2) Julie K (T54) CHCH band named after a tank. 3) Young Pros (Bass Drum of Death) 2 piece from from Mississippi 4) Year’s Not Long (Male Bonding) shop assistants make music. 5) Into The Depths (Soft Moon) Described in a review as “a San Francisco-based neo-post-punk band “
7) In Between Buses (Las Robertas) Costa Rican all-girl band. Audience is way too cool…
8) With You Alone (Woven Bones) Garage band / surf rock if you like. From Austin, Texas. 9) Veil (Weekend) & 10) Coma Summer (Weekend) Excellent noise makers from San Fran. These tracks from the album Sports. You can hear a ‘live’ studio mix of Veil here.
11) Throw The Water (Flight) Noisy like the end of the world will be, which coincidentally is the theme of their next song – see track 22. Term their sound “2-step / Death Metal”. Buy tunes here. 12) Teacher (Surf City) Excellent, excellent. Looking fwd to seeing them after they finish touring the colonies, appear to be on their way to Calgary in Canada. 13) Burning Mirrors (Lumerians) Hypno-drone space rock – Can meets Cave meets Black Moth Super Rainbow 14) Marianne (Ceremony) More shoegaze from Fredericksburg, Virginia.
15) Young Throats (Parenthetical Girls) Take their music seriously ‘- “Limited to 500 physical copies per EP, the 12″s will each feature original art by renowned Swedish illustrator Jenny Mörtsell, and will be hand-numbered in the blood of their respective band members…”
Also do improv.
I crossed myself before I crossed your lips
16) Hard Drivin’ (Weed Hounds) There is something beguiling about harsh guitars set against sweet yet snotty female vocals. 17) Still Windmills (Sky Larkin) .. and again.. 18) realize really (Lab Coast) 19) Bitchin’ (Cycle Schmeichel) Bristol band making retro noise. 20) Weekend Dudes (Ringo Deathstarr) BBC thinks they are derivative, do I care…? Seems an odd comment since all rock and roll is mining the same ground. 21) Chips Ahoy! (The Hold Steady) Another track from Boys and Girls in America . Seedy in a good way.
i got a girl and she don’t have to work
she can tell which horse is gonna finish in first
some nights the painkillers make the pain even worse
came in six lengths ahead
we spent the whole next week getting high
i love this girl but i can’t tell when she’s having a good time
how am i supposed to know that you’re high if you won’t let me touch you?
22) Real Estate (Flight) The end of the world, but in a tuneful way.
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