DUG

so last week i saw the movie 'DIG', a fantastic doco following The Dandy Warhols and (the brilliantly named) The Brian Jonestown Massacre for 7 years, watching as the warhols become successful selling out stadiums and selling cell-phones, while the BJM continue to implode, fight on stage, put off potential labels, shoot heroin, and all the other run rock and roll things that don't pay the bills. the movie is fun to watch in the best shadenfreunde kind of way.

then on wednesday i finally got to hear some BJM and they are totally where its at. i could also empathise with them when i watched C4 and saw some really awful musicians making loads of money, while the brian jonestown massacre, along with the plastic kitchen and das ben continue to go unappreciated.

but the could all change tonight when the plastic kitchen play at an empty venue. or not.

yep, the kitchen are going to rock tonight, although as our confidence grows, our pre-gig anxiety lessens, and when we're nervous we're play everything faster and louder, i hope that as we become more relaxed we don't become a lounge band. but we'll worry about that polyester when we come to it.

in the meantime, cindy is doing a great job organising our dunedin gigs for december. hopefully my das ben cd will be released by then and i can show those mainland scarfies what acoustic stonk is all about.

til then, check out Mary Gauthier's new cd. she's like a dark twisted emmy-lou - she has demons on her demons.

Thinks I'm liking today

1. The Town Belt - i went on a walk up there the other day, and damn its stil a great space.

2. Delisio Tsatsiki chips - chips have been taken to a whole new level, and i'm already worried about what will happen when they stop producing them (all the good flavours seem to disappear and we're just left with the classics).

3. Room 101 - last night Stevie K mixed up some fine tunes and some fine beer was drunk and it was all fine. fine.

4. Jude Madill - she played a solo set at indigo on wednesday (she's also in alt country band Oister), and it was fantastic, and included a very well done gillian welch cover. Jude is a great das ben supporter and comes to every gig, so it was great to be able to go see her play, but it was even better to discover that she is really really good (saves me having to lie).

5. not stepping in dog poo - ok not very deep thought, but last night i walked past a dog turd with a foot print in it and thought, phew, glad that's not me.

6. new series of dr who - final this week, its been so well done, and after this week we'll be back to nothing good on telly.

7. lists - i've always liked lists (except for dumb ones). i was watching C4 top ten show last night, and they were playing top ten sampled tunes, and i thought it would be fun to make up lists for C4, but since they're not calling, maybe i'll make up some lists for my blog. one day.

let's roll

so on friday i played at the indigo acoustic lounge, and it was such a fun gig. first kali joined me for four songs, including her fantastic song 'pooey', and two moldy peaches covers. then i played two solo songs (Jet Pack and The Das Ben Drinking Song), and then Pete Baillie came up and did some fine guitaring on a whole bunch of my songs. its certainly more fun to play with others (like my school reports used to say 'plays well with others'). highlights for me were debuting my new song, and as a very simple tribute to Richie Ramone (the drummer who shaved 3 minutes off the ramones set when he joined the band) i began Downloading Porn with Davo (a Moldy Peaches Song) by yelling 1 2 3 4, and playing a v fast version of the song.

then saturday night i tried to avoid the election by going to Fly My Pretties, a truly wonderful show, showcasing some of the best talent in the world, who just all happen to be wellingtonians. age pryor was the star of the show, and played two new awesome songs. other great moments were tessa rain's song 'carrier pigeon' and the opening song 'nato's theme'. the only lowlight was sam scott giving us an election update halfway through the gig. i found my brain trying to work out permeatations of possible governments, and i was less able to concentrate on the beautiful music in front of me.

one quick thought about the election. the whole campaign seemed to be two like two squabbling parents trying to buy the love of their children, rather than think about what the children actually need. divorce weekend dad don was offering lots of treats to the kids if they came over, and solo mum helen lost her normal composure and tried to bribe her kids back. meanwhile the dirty uncles rodney, winston, and peter are offering lots of treats to have the kids come over there (i'd sooner let my kids stay at michael jackson's house). luckily sensible old auntie Green had enough common sense to not offer bribes, but instead encourage people to think about the long-term welfare of the whole whanau. yay for the greens making 5%.

the das ben mtv tounge twister song

so last night the plastic kitchen and the hi-aces played at happy. the hi-aces sounded so so good, and the kitchen made lots of noise, and i made lots of bad jokes between songs, and one guy in the audience fell asleep, so we'll have to be noisier next time (next gig for the kitchen - sept 30th Level One, Dixon St)

in the meantime, here are the lyrics to my new das ben song. feel free to memorise them and singalong when i perform it at Indigo, Sept 16th 6pm

The Das Ben MTV Tounge Twister Song (Red Leather Yellow Leather)
(words and music: B. Sedley, 2005)

Everybody's an Eddie Vedder Wannabe
but does he wannabe a better wannabe
does anybody wannabe the latter wannabe
a better man, i bet he can, all over mtv

She sells singles by the sea shore
in a teeny bikini, she'll sell many more
we're in trouble mum the bubble gum has got her own show
reborn soft porn video

red leather yellow leather red leather

i get cross over the crossover that's everywhere
its all over october and the rest of the year
some cover on the cover of a rolling stone
but the cover has no colour by a droning clone

red leather yellow leather red leather

inxs had success but they wondered what came next
network execs with big fat cheques said here's a plan that's not complex
the farris brothers and the others said we'll take the dough
depravity reality tv show

red leather yellow leather red leather