Posts by Grant McDougall
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Those are more or less my thoughts about Skeleton Tree, too.
I'm going to the Wellington show, it'll be the fifth time I've seen he and the Bad Seeds in the past 25 years (Yes, they are indeed my all-time favourite band...).
I'm really pleasantly surprised that he's touring at all - I thought he was going to lay low for a couple of years, given the circumstances. Plus, he hardly needs the acclaim or money these days.
It'll be great to see PJ Harvey the following week, too !
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This is pretty good, too:
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Is there a "Bat-shit crazy, whack-bar things Donald Trump is likely to say before election day" bingo card on the internet yet ?
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RIP, Helen Kelly and thank so much for standing up for workers.
I met Helen only briefly two years ago - the day after Dirty Politics was published. It was at the UBS in Dunedin and she was buying four copies. We had a quick chat about the book and I told her to keep up the good work she'd always done.
My sincere condolences to her friends and family.
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Hard News: Friday Music: After the…, in reply to Sacha,
I know it's a celebration, but that still didn't stop John Campbell's gushing of superlatives seem spurious.
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Hard News: Friday Music: After the…, in reply to Ken Double,
Not at all. Thomas Oliver is a one-man Op Shop..
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Hard News: Friday Music: After the…, in reply to Jason Kemp,
Steve Abel – NZ’s answer to Nick Cave
No he is not. Steve Abel is a solid, competent singer-songwriter, but nothing beyond that.
He is merely ok, in a blandly capable manner, but dull as dishwater otherwise. His songs simply don't have the breadth, depth and richness of Cave's ouvre.
None of his songs even approach 'Tupelo', 'The Mercy Seat', 'Brother My Cup Is Empty' and umpteen more.
(Sorry Jason, I realise I'm being cranky, but NC&TBS have been my favourite band for over 30 years, I've seen them four times in the past 25 years, etc, etc).
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The returning host John Campbell was relaxed and eloquent and the show itself felt quite different to last year’s slightly strained anniversary award.
It might've felt like that if you were there, but it came across really poorly on TV (I watched RNZ's coverage).
I watched it for an hour and it seemed curiously flat and dull.
As for Campbell, again, it may've seemed like that if you were there, but I thought he was really poor.
Over and over, every time he introduced a band or commented once they'd finished, it was just dire. He reeled off, over and over, a plethora of platitudes that became increasingly empty, patronising and spurious the more it happened.
It was like seeing a proud parent gushing over their kids' kindergarten painting, an excess of completely needless superlatives, every time he opened his gob.It would've helped if he'd been a lot more measured and professional, rather than being a fan-boy, over and over. He was just embarrassing.
It pains me to say all this about him, too. He's superb when he's professional and I like a lot of the same bands he does, but some restraint would've been appreciated in this case.
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Saw the movie on Thursday, too. He's really put himself through the mincer (especially in his twenties, early thirties) has Nick Cave and always managed to endure, but dear oh dear, he really looked - understandably - wrung-out by things in it.
Both it and the new album are very compelling but sombre, needless to say.
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Regarding Paddy Gower, I had to laugh at his comment a few nights ago that "they are really drinking the kool-aid here."