Mattsock / Helenapalooza

So this weekend i went to Matt Pants' 30th bday party near Featherston. it was a big day out with over 15 hours of live music.



Check out more photos here

das ben on the radio

so, you can hear a song off my new album on National Radio's new show Music 101 this Saturday 28th Jan sometime between 2 and 5pm. You can also hear me on Radio Active, MUNT FM, and RDU in Christchurch.

Then listen to an interview with me on Radio Active (89FM Wellington or www.radioactive.co.nz) at 2pm on Saturday 18th Feb on the Late Late Breakfast Show.

its all go as we get closer to the big CD release on Sat 18th Feb.

Kia Kaha, b

hi

if you're reading my blog (and you are - i can see you doing it right now), please consider leaving a comment. It doesn't have to be deep, but its nice to know who's reading my random thoughts.

smile lots

b

The Prionic Man

so last night i played a short set at bodega, opening for Pete Baillie's new band Prion. my set went well, i made lots of noise, got some cheering, some smiling, and even some singing along during the drinking song, and the punters seemed to like my new song Vandals in Love.

Prion were also really good. Pete is an old school frontman, when he's on stage, its always his party, and the band did a good job of making his songs rock. I especially liked Pete's new song 'spoiler', and bassist Andy's Daniel Johnstonesque song about being in love with a girl from another planet.

BTW, according to Wikipedia: "Prions — short for proteinaceous infectious particle — are infectious protein structures that propagate through conversion of normal host proteins of the same type. Though the exact mechanisms of their actions and reproduction are unknown, it is now commonly accepted that prions are responsible for a number of previously known but little-understood diseases generally classified under transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases (TSEs), including scrapie (a disease of sheep), kuru (found in members of the formerly cannibalistic Foré tribe in Papua New Guinea), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Chronic Wasting Disease, Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS), and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) [1]. These diseases affect the structure of brain tissue and all are fatal and untreatable.

So far all prions discovered are believed to infect and propagate by formation of an amyloid fold. However, since any infectious protein particle would be defined as a prion, other mechanisms may be possible."

two cows standing in a field - one says 'so what do you think about this mad cow disease', the other one said 'don't ask me, i'm a helicopter'.

shameless promotion

My CD is now available from the following shops:
Real Groovy Records in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch
Slow Boat Records in Wellington
Galaxy Records in Christchurch
and online from www.smokecds.com

you can also buy it on the door at my cd release gig SATURDAY 18th FEB, HAPPY

Ben's Day Out

so after 10 years of always meaning to but never quite getting around to it (or being overseas), this weekend i finally made it up to auckland for a big day out. and damn it was a good time.

First band i saw were the Subways, a bunch of English kids playing stonking Strokesesque old school rock'n'roll. and it stonked up a storm and had all the punters jumping. and the bassist, the cute little rock goddess that she was just never stopped running up and down the stage. all good.

Sleater Kinney were the next band we saw. Olympian girl rock that i've always liked on CD, but sounded even better live. They were followed by The Magic Numbers, a curious bunch of english hillbilly hippies who played feel good songs, accompanied by lots of tamborine and harmonies. i'd never heard them before, but i really rate them.

Saw a bit of Elemeno P while we went on a beer run (the only beer available was Lion Red, which is undrinkable, so it wasn't a big drinking day which given the heat was probably a good thing). Elemeno P looked like rock stars up on the big stage, but the sound was pretty shit. although i was impressed by their choice of covers - Ramones' I wanna be sedated and Verlaines' Death and the Maiden - way to educate the kids.

It was after 5pm before we saw a band with a male bassist (am i a big girl for being a bassist?). the Brunettesbrought all their friends on stage, so they ended up with a 15 piece orchestra of eclectic instruments - they were having a good time, but their set would have benefited from one more rehearsal. They were followed by Henry Rollins. Before Henry played, Geraldine asked me what he does, i said he gets up and says he hates george bush and the crowd cheers, then he says he loves nz and the crowd cheers more. that was word for word his show, with a funny story about iggy pop thrown in the middle. i mean what is 'spoken word'? its not quite stand up because the goal isn't purely to make people laugh, but its not quite philosophy because it really isn't that deep ('america has a problem with guns because they let their children play with toy guns'). i guess Henry summed it up best himself when he described himself as having Attention Deficit Disorder - he needs our attention all the time.

Got bored of Henry's rantings, and we went over to see Shihad instead. They are damn good at what they do, but i'm not quite sure Jon Toogood is all there anymore. still, it was nice of him to wish us happy new year. Soon after Franz Ferdinand hit the stage and had the whole crowd bopping to their fun singalong ditties. they sounded great, but were a bit lifeless up there on the giant stage. i'm sure they're better at their own gigs then at a huge festival. Unlike Iggy Pop and the Stooges who were the highlight of the day. Iggy was, is, and always will be wonderfully nuts. The old men behind him made lots of noise while he ran up and down the stage, jumped into the audience, swung his mike dangerously, invited audience onto stage with him, and occasionally sang some punk rock classics. he'd make a great dog.

The White Stripes headlined and let's face it, they are amazing at what they do - jack sings like robert plant and plays guitar like jimmy page, and looks like willy wonka, meg has almost learned to drum with both hands. yet, somehow despite their awesome sound, they still looked like they were phoning in the gig, and they didn't really want to be there. something had got jack grumpy and it took away from the vibe. oh well. they still rock like a rocky thing.

unfortunately the crowds were too big and we couldn't get in to see fat freddy's drop, so there ended our big day out.

Next year look for the Plastic Kitchen rocking up the local stage (i figure if i start the rumour now, maybe the organisers of the BDO will hear it and believe it).