Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Strypes are fucking great

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Mike

I wasn’t too sure about the hype surrounding Ireland’s The Strypes the first time I heard them.The return of UK* guitar pop has been falsely heralded more times than Pete Doherty’s had hepatitis scares. But occasionally its worth investigating further than the hype (the Arctic Monkeys anyone?) and sometimes it takes a live performance to really understand what a band is “about”. The Strypes first few releases were covers of rhythm and blues standards by the likes of Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters, and although undoubtably brilliant, it wasn’t until I saw a live performance of their first original single “Blue Collar Jane” on the Jools Holland show earlier this week that I really fell in love with this band: Fucking magic. The fact that they’re only 16 years old and hail from the Irish equivalent of Palmerston North makes them even more special. I can’t wait to hear more … Read more →

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Review: Best Coast – ‘The Only Place’

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Mike

Best Coast’s 2010 record Crazy For You was an album that triumphed through it’s simplicity. Unashamedly pop in nature, the songs were sincere and catchy odes to love, life and sunshine. A beautiful record and one of the best released in 2010. So two years on it’s follow-up time, and Best Coast are back with The Only Place, an album which suffers from a fairly typical case of “second record syndrome”. That’s not to say it’s a bad record: it’s not. It’s a good record – even a very good record. It just suffers a little from the very thing that made their first record so great: its simplicity. Let’s start from the beginning. Opener and title track “The Only Place” (free download here) is top notch: a poppy ode to the band’s home state of California over jangly guitars and a melody to die for. A perfect first single: … Read more →

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Why the fuck do people like Mumford and Sons so much?

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Mike

Mumford and Sons are average as shit. I mean, honestly, I’m not even sure if their name is supposed to be spelt with an ampersand or the word “and”, because when visiting their Wikipedia page to find out, I actually fell asleep before I was able to read anything. It’s not that Mumford and Sons are the worst band in the world (that spot is still reserved for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their knuckle-dragging legions – God bless ‘em, it’s important to know there’s a floor on these things), but why do so many people love them when there are so many bands out there writing better music? The people that like Mumford and Sons are the same people that made bands like Snow Patrol, Jack Johnson and Coldplay famous – basically people who like their sleep therapy put to music. Someone coming up to you and telling … Read more →

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Five lesser known Stone Roses classics

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Mike

The Stone Roses announced this week that they are reuniting. I’m a huge fan, so for me this reunion is some of the most exciting music news for quite some time. The Stone Roses are arguably one of the most important and exciting bands of the last 30 years, and they ended at a point where it seemed like they still had so much to give. They were kind of like the English equivalent of the Pixies (but with a tad more mainstream success) – great songs, but with an experimental edge and a “who gives a fuck” attitude to what their contemporaries were up to musically. Their three reunion shows also just sold out in the fastest time ever for a UK rock show. In short: the Stone Roses getting back together is a very big deal indeed. So if you’re not excited by the announcement of their reformation, … Read more →

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Six reasons why you should go to the Laneways Festival

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Mike

Holy shit. Did you guys see the Laneways lineup? It’s basically a who’s who of all the amazingly great new bands that we always talk about on this blog. Arguably the best NZ festival lineup of the last decade (no I’m not being paid by the Laneways people). Its about time we had a decent festival here that’s dedicated to exciting new bands and artists, so here’s six reasons why you should definitely attend. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart The best bits of early 90s shoegaze, Smiths-esque pop and 80s bubble gum rock. Great songs great vibe and just a really fun band. Their album Belong is easily one of my favourite albums of 2011. Washed Out Hazy chillwave vibes – chillwave has got to be one of the great new(ish) genres of this year. Washed Out’s album Within and Without is another one that’s well worth checking … Read more →

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The thought of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album makes me weep for humanity

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Mike

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the worst. I mean the absolute worst. I’m not exaggerating. The fact that they are currently leading our Worst Albums Of All Time chart is absolutely no mistake. And now it’s that time again. Every three or four years the Chilis part cheeks and excrete forth another brown nugget of near identical tunes and the whole world goes completely nuts for it. As a huge music fan (or music snob, whatever you want to call me) you just can’t imagine what a depressing prospect this is for me. There is so much great music out there these days, and the idea that people would push all of it aside in favour of another slap bass induced 80s cock rock fest is just completely depressing. I mean can you really tell the difference between their last few singles? “Dani California”, “Scar Tissue”, “Californication”, “By The … Read more →

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Worst Albums Of All Time: U2 – ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Mike

First things first: Bono is a complete bell-end. Of all of the musicians in the world, he is the most outspoken, pretentious and out of touch of all of them. Bono’s personality can be summed up as the product of over 30 years or so of being surrounded by yes-men, with no-one to say to him “No, Bono. The music industry doesn’t work that way any more” or “Take off those glasses you twat. You look like a geriatric fly.” So to get you in the mood for the rest of the review, here’s a collection of pretentious Bono quotes – that I spent upwards of 5 minutes scouring the internet for – to make you hate the great man even more: “Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.” “Laughter is eternity if joy is real.” “I … Read more →

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Ximena Sariñana proves that pop music doesn’t need to suck

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Mike

I’ve recently become addicted to the song “Different” by Ximena Sariñana. It’s everything a great pop song should be: insanely catchy without dumbing down the lyrics of catering to the lowest common denominator. Just goes to show that there’s plenty of great ideas left in the pop music sphere: don’t let the Black Eyed Peas of this world make you believe that the only way to get sales is by doing shit covers of crap-in-the-first-place 80s songs. There’s another official video here, but it’s a little bit cheesy. I prefer the much more fitting and also official lyric vid above. A bit of background on Ximena: “Different” is the first song taken from her forthcoming self titled album – her second, and first sung in English. Her first album Mediocre was sung entirely in Spanish (she is Mexican) and was released in 2008. She has also dueted with Jason Mraz, … Read more →

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NME top 100 music videos (and some)

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Elkano

Another guest blog for you, folks. Elkano takes you through his favourite music videos of all time. So NME’s top 100 video’s list is interesting. I’ve had a poke through not only the top ten, but also the top 100, and all I really found was NME’s website is a horror show to navigate. Only joking, there are some definite pearlers in the list but there a few crucial ones missing for me. And thus I started crafting my own personal top ten videos list. After faffing around for four hours, I realized it was just too difficult to balance the notion of “popular videos” versus my own torrid musical preferences. So I copped out like Switzerland in the forties and thought I would just write about a few great music vids. So here is the official list of “A few good videos I know and thought I would share” … Read more →

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The new Coldplay song is worse than Ebola

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Mike

Coldplay have long been the butt of jokes amongst music fans. Whether it’s using their name as an adjective to convey blandness (“I don’t want my curry too spicy – give me a Coldplay one”), describing your friends farts as “Coldplay covers” or using their songs as a metaphor for insomnia cure, there is plenty to laugh about. The average armpit fart, for example, has been proven to contain more of musical worth than any given Coldplay song. The fact that Chris Martin seems like a pretty decent guy outside his music (as opposed to Bono, who clearly has the personality of a nut-sack) is somewhat undone by the fact that he is married to the world’s stupidest person. So you can imagine my delight when I heard that Coldplay had a new song out. It’s called, and I’m not making this up, “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” and is … Read more →

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