tell us about the idol stuff muso

hey Manamana!

Idol stuff is frustrating, and i'm actually nervous. And i don't normally get nervous, but i havn't been for an audition for quite a while, and to be honest, i'm quite doubting my vocal quality at the moment. I want to go in their with my best, but i know my voice isn't at the top of it's game - which i think is what's making me nervous! :o)

Heaps of information at www.nzidol.tk. It's a good site, and everyone there actually wants to be in the show, or are supporters of the show, so we're getting a lot of good info from others who have already auditioned. Anywho. More about that after my audition....only 6 more sleeps to go..... :o(

// understanding girlfriend = hard to come by

// you mean they do exist? :-o

yea im sure they do, grimmybug i hope i'll meet a muso/arty chick one day THAT UNDERSTANDS.

Understanding girlfriend. I'm one of those. I have a boyfriend who is an actor, and we've been through ups adn downs - though it is nice to have someone who understands my love of music. Love for the creativeness.

Hey Will. Thinking i might do either Misery - Pink and Steve Tyler or "I think it's gona rain today" by Bette Middler - from Beaches.

// my girl

well technically not ... force of habit

sorry i needed that.

The privilage!

//Then even worse musical crimes, those bands who become "famous" here, through some bullshit means, like being an actor on the wonderful and fantasically written, Shortland Street, then form a shit band, never bother to write a single good song and still mansge to pollute our precious ear waves with their pooorly executed shit shit music. Need I name names Marshal?

As far as I can tell, Rubicon is the only band that even loosely adheres to this scenario, and I think they existed long before Paul Reid got a job on Shortland Street. Sure, it most likely increased their exposure, and it probably helped that Rubicon appeal to a particular demographic that watches Shortland Street, but ultimately complaining about Rubicon is probably on a par with complaining about Shortland Street. There's an audience there for both, so I'm not going to be the one to begrudge them the success.

So what other musicians do you think undeservedly increased their profile in the same way? The Tokey Tones? Strawpeople, through association with Stephanie Tauevihi?

1995 bic runga was host on tv hit's show (music nation??) not sure of the name
two (maybe more) weeks in a row they played this video by a band i'd never heard of called Stellar
so not just her career (kept it in the family)

Paul Reid is not just the drummer,
he has played drums, guitar and sung in videos (he's like ALF)

he's not a tall poppy
he's just someone we can laugh at
funny boy

look all i'm saying is that it's bullshit to claim these people are talentless when they've obviously worked hard at getting where they are, and quite frankly, although i have no specific love for them myself, i get pissed off at people ragging rubicon in the same way i get pissed off at children drowning kittens or kids bullying special students at school, sure they're different and maybe not as clever as you or me, but it doesn't mean they deserve to be constantly harrassed, y'know?

i'd much rather the band-ragging got a bit more spread out and creative, i've already heard every insult that the haters can throw at rubicon, the feelers and stellar etc. because they're such easy targets and the haters obviously don't know enough about music and integrity to pick on the even worse acts - the hypocrites, the pretentious, and the false (john "use my hand" mayer for instance)

i mean if you're going to be a prick about something at least be a prick about something new, don't just join the club, dig?

one thing i can say about rubicon, they may not be the brightest cookies out there, but they're young, they're trying, and they've managed to get as far as they have obviously without the help of the NZM anti-rubicon club, so more power to them

te ... quila !!!!

:D

well it sounds like you've had a shit day :P

//hmm...that's a funny one, since the Datsuns are a bit of a 'right-place-right-time' phenomenon

like kiwifruit

//'Do or do not- there is no try.'

that's some super words

that should be the new national anthem

//and it should have served as a lesson as to what type of music
//new zealand can 'really' export overseas

hmm...that's a funny one, since the Datsuns are a bit of a 'right-place-right-time' phenomenon - they hit the UK in time for NME's big (and most likely temporary) rocknroll push. While NME is sufficiently reputable to act as a trendsetter, I don't know if that kind of company policy is feasible in NZ for any magazine, radio station or tv channel. Kiwi media will always be in the habit of following trends, rather than setting them. The only network that could be considered an exception is the b-net, and from time to time they come under fire for being elitist. Were they pushing the Datsuns? Don't know.

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad that The Datsuns have finally reaped the rewards of their hard work, and I certainly hope that the kiwi music industry is feeling sufficiently sheepish; but there must be plenty of really great hardworking bands in NZ and all over the world that won't be discovered just because they never catch the attention of a trendsetter. It's always going to be up to kiwi fans to advertise their favourite bands - the media will (eventually) follow. Isn't that what this site's about?

I've digressed a wee bit - it just got me thinking is all...

harsh

This is exactly why as soon as we can get the money together, my band's moving to Germany. Why? I'd love to spend years touring NZ and playing all the venues that I've spent years seeing other great NZ bands , but really? Put all this time and money into an album that a comparitively tiny number of people will hear and appreciate, get rejected time and time again by the majors cause not enough bopper 14-year olds or over-35 year olds in middle-NZ will buy it, and even if it does get radio play, having to be reduced to yet another ridiculous dancing-puppet of commercial radio stations that most popular bands become in this country.

Fuck playing some kids' backyard for Channel Z (who seem to think they're the bastion of cutting edge, alternative music in this country) if you've got any real aspirations as a band - why waste your time with such a fucking joke, mistaking it as somthing that will raise your profile.

It's a shame so many kiwi bands waste their formative years on little activities like this just so they can get A-rotate on try-hard stations like Channel Z - the Datsuns skipped all this and that's why their rise to fame was so incredible, they knew where to go and how to do it.

I love New Zealand man- and maybe I'll be back in ten years when my band's got that overseas cred and it's finally reason enough for the general public in NZ to like and buy our music. Hopefully then it wont take the fucking plebs at Channel Z as long to start playing us as they did with the Datsuns, who only seemd to be worth playing once they were on the cover of Q.

unless you dream of being in a covers band, then it's perfectly ok.

I'm laughing here!

No, that would be my nightmare. In Dunedin town, there is a well-known gentleman (well, well known to the music crowd anyway) who has been in covers bands for nigh on 20 years, forever trying to "make it" with his not so unique brand of shred solos combined with cheesy ass eighties rock (Van Halen et al). His gear is fucking awesome, and he can play (in that style, anyway), but he's going nowhere fast.

Being in a covers band for 20 years is my idea of hell.

//Do artists write crapper and crapper stuff as they get older? Can anything ever be as vital as the fresh songs on an artist's first album?

As much as one may try to be objective about the second/third/fourth albums viewed as seperate creative works, a person can't help but draw comparisons to whatever it was that they first heard.

EG, I really dig 'Betty' by Helmet, which was their third release, but I don't think anything they did before or after stacks up to it. It doesn't help that I first heard Betty when I was in Uni and having revelation after revelation about the place music had in my life, drinking waaaaaaaay too much beer etc etc, and will always associate those good times with the music I listened to at the time.

Oh, no question that Betty is amazing, probably their best- maybe I should've picked a better example for my point-
OK, my favourite album by Queen is 'A Day The Races' because it's the first one I ever heard, and I listened to it over and over and nothing they did before or after compares to it- I have lost objectivity by obsessing/idolising/internalising one record to the point where although I might enjoy other albums, I feel like 'I like the one that matters'... people get like that with records, eh- not a bad thing at all to have a passionate devotion to your favourite records, it's just how people (like me) can get.
So is it because the album really is 'the one' or is it just that some people are more succeptable to acute specific audiophilia syndrome? (I just made that up...)

Ah, the glamorous rock-n-roll life...