Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Garageland - "Come Back Special" EP (1995)
Garageland's "Come Back Special" EP is 12 years old now and I still listen to it a lot and every song on it is golden. But don't call it a comeback - the title is "Come Back Special", three words. You are special and you need to come back.
So it's time to pull open the CD case, feeling the plastic ping open, and pop out the CD with its white, pixely/snowflakey design and put it in a stereo (not Walkman, computer or iPod, thanks). Press play. Hear the laser squelch.
It is time to be welcomed to the pavilion up here at Lake Arrowhead. It is time to meet Mr Personality himself - Donny Brooks, and the sped-up soundbite from some 1960s-style American film. And soon the lovely, chimey guitar kicks in, bringing with it the rest of the band. And it becomes obvious that we're not at the pavilion in Lake Arrowhead. We're somewhere in suburban New Zealand, but we're wishing we were at a swell 1960s teenage hop in America.
Sometimes I get a little out of line. Sometimes I lose it.
Jeremy Eade kind of slurs his way through the verses, as if they are only there as a lead-up to the chorus. Cos the chorus is mighty. The chorus deserves to be shouted from a high place. Like the top of the car park building on Bryce Street or up by the water tower on Ruakiwi Road. And you'd shout out, "Come back! All is forgiven!" And you'd mean it.
Billy Joel is an asshole.
If you're feeling too uplifted by "Come Back", then you must be brought back down to earth. Here, listen to this - it's the sound of a lawnmower starting up. You're still in your bedroom. Now track two is here. It's called "Struck" and it's the blues for suburban white kids. "Struck" has four chords in it and sometimes they're played high, sometimes low (__a bit like life, yeah__). You should only listen to "Struck" at night. And you should be alone and in a dimly lit room and be a little drunk and maybe smoking cigarettes. And then when Jeremy sings, "Please play me 'Benny and the Jets'," you'll nod. And when he sings the chorus - "I'm kinda struck by the way I fucked up" - you'll try not to feel too bummed out, but then the searing guitar will come along and push you over the edge.
Say goodbye to all the hot lights.
Which leads us to a question - "What will you do?" The guitar in the verses is twitchy and uneasy. It needs to know the answer. It's trying to figure things out. But the chorus just repeats the question and things are much smoother and easier. The drumming offers a steady, reassuring beat throughout. The answer is there is no answer, but that it's OK to not know what you'll do.
Every time I think you, well, I get out of my head.
You know when you're in love and it feels so choice that all you want to do is a) shag your sexy new boyfriend/girlfriend and b) kick arse cos you're just feeling so awesome? That's what "Fay Ray" is all about. When Jeremy and Debbie sing of these twin desires - "I gotta get some. I gotta have some." - this is also how a giant Fay Ray monster would feel scaling the Empire State Building herself. The last minute of "Fay Ray" is all squiggly guitar, so you should get up off your bed and dance to it.
I'm gonna sneak under your skin. Gonna never let you win.
It is determined that the PA system is in working order, so the sexy bass, flirty guitar and impatient drums kick in, and the pop cigar of "Pop Cigar" is lit. This is not a song that celebrates the awesomeness of pop. It celebrates the awfulness of it. The moment when you realise that music has taken over your life and things aren't quite going as planned, but yet it doesn't really matter cos you're smoking on a pop cigar and (how's it go?), oh, and it doesn't taste that bad.
Not bad at all.
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Still, at least there's someone there to save us from the trauma of hearing the word "wanker" on The Simpsons.
I love reading BSA decisions.
The complainant argued that the words [wanker and ass] were totally inappropriate for supposed child and family friendly viewing time, and that they would be unacceptable in a school or employment setting.
Ha ha ha! I used to work for a company who had the Employment Court rule that bad-arse swearing was acceptable in that workplace and so employees couldn't be disciplined for it. And in my current workplace, I sit near a group of young ladies who swear like pirates.
Anyway, I hope and trust that there will be moral lapses up the wazoo at the great Wellingtonista-Public Address Christmas Party at Welington's Mighty Mighty on Thursday, December 6.
OMG, I am so excited about this. I have time off work and flights and tickets booked already. I'm looking forward to meeting the many fine people who make up the Wellingtonista and PA System community.
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Okay, go ...
That makes it seem so easy. But now I'm faced with the difficult task of figuring out which is my golden NZ recording (so many to choose from!) and then crafting some prose in the shadow of Mr Downes' fine work above.
I'm excited. Watch this space.
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I appreciate the spell-check, daleaway. My brain appeared to have played a trick on me.
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The Herald reports that Subway and Castrol have also pulled their advertising from Californication.
But ol' McCroskie is unhappy at the police, who refuse to do the same. Yay, the popo!
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It seems as though there's been an absolute blossoming of crude sexist ads in the last couple of years, sometimes wrapped in protective "irony" but these days not even.
Though it does seem that the sexist ads are for products that are marketed towards young men.
We're not seeing anything like the vile Hertz ad in the '80s, that turned the car rental counter staff into obedient serving girls in seductive soft focus.
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I have yet to see one of the Burger King ads that everyone keeps referencing.
Run-of-the-mill "hot" girls in bikinis.
Burger King either appear to have realised that the only people who eat there are 15-year-old boys, or they want to reduce their customer base to that demographic.
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The interview with Bob McCroskie on bFM is interesting because he admits that he hadn't actually watched Californication before calling for it to be boycotted.
Apparently Family First's cohorts in Australia gave them a summary of the show, and so it seems like FF's outrage was based on a plot summary.
This is dumb for two reasons: 1) Australia and New Zealand have different cultures. What's outrageous in Australia may be acceptable in New Zealand, and vice versa. 2) Like Roger Ebert says about films, it's not what a film is about, but how it is about. In other words, the description "a man gets a blowjob from a nun" is virtually meaningless unless you view the scene within the episode as a whole and see what is really going on.
Ugh. This is, like, high school media studies. Family First need to watch more television.
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I ask that question all the time too, but even more I wonder "why would people ever share an email address?" - the idea of doing that just totally freaks me out.
I've also been thinking about this a bit lately. It just seems so weird to share an email address. It's like having a party line phone.
I can understand that couples would receive some email for the both of them, but it's not like you can only send email to one address at a time.
And yet I know all these people - and some are quite young and interweb savvy - who share an email address with their honeys. Why?
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JBHIFI are really giving the Warehouse a run for their money on the DVD/CD front
JB Hifi is great. I've only been to their Queen Street shop, but I'm very impressed. Not only do they have a huge range of CDs and DVDs (and vinyl!), but they have specifically knowledgable staff, which is something the Warehouse lacks.
But where they totally kick the Warehouse's arse is how JB's DVD shelves are sorted in strict alphabetical order. It's so easy to find what you want, whereas at the Warehouse, the alphabet seems to be a mere starting point.