Number 25
Song & Artist: Perfect Day - Lou Reed
Album & Date: Transformer - 8th November 1972
Nationality of band: American
Members at release: Herbie Flowers (Bass Guitar - English), John Halsey (Drums - English), Lou Reed (American - Guitar/Vocals) & Mick Ronson (Lead Guitar - English)

YouTube:

 

My rant;

If you're wondering where you heard this song, think Trainspotting.

I know that 3 of the four guys in the 'band' are English and yet I have called this an American band. Well I used two bits of logic for this one. Firstly, it was released as Lou Reed - Transformer and Lou Reed is American. Secondly, I call Crowded House a Kiwi band because Neil Finn had the most pure talent in the band and the same rings true here.

I have called this Glam Rock. I choked a bit over it, but seeing as I have spent a week wrestling with the idea that this is rock at all, that seemed the best place to class it. I believe now that this is a rock song. Borderline perhaps, but that is what makes it brilliant.

I am not a Velvet Underground fan, but I understand the impact that the band had on pop culture. I guess that could make this an Alternative Rock song.... in fact fuckit, I'm changing it..... done.

Alternative rock is a divisive genre in my mind. But that is an argument for another day. Basically if everyone else is listening to something else, then its alternative......

Like lots of songs on this list I don't listen to this one a lot, but when I do it claws my memory back to first dates that went so well, so well that I was floating on air, and clucking to all and sundry what a result I'd had.... but then, later it all comes back as you reap what you sow. A truly poignant reflection on a few relationships I have had.

Most notably a certain German who personifies this track.

Yep, many perfect days were had. Holidays, zoo, messing around in parks, and at home. So god damned happy that my 20 year old past self was literally jumping for joy to my friends who always held back on accepting my happiness. (problems all left alone) I knew why, deep down i knew why, but as Michael (Jackson) Bradshaw once said; just enjoy it while it lasts. They knew that they would be there to pick up the pieces when I fell apart. I knew I was going to fall apart, I knew I was going to reap what I'd sown, but I was incapable of doing anything other than just enjoying the 'perfect day' I was going through.

The tone Lou sings is kind of threatening and cagey and menacing and is exactly how I felt the as end began closing in on me and then it all slammed to an end at Auckland International Airport. Fuck I still hate that place. 'You just keep me hanging on.'

The undercurrent of upbeat and smooth music perfectly counterpoints the depth of the sombre delivery.

It always amazes me that this song, which I heard for the first time during watching Trainspotting at Lisa's house, symbolises both the most emotional I have ever been, and the point where the vast majority of my emotions stopped.

The coolest thing about this track is that, according to my sources, while it seems so damn simple, it is apparently a very difficult and complex song to play and sing.

That must take true genius.

Bands: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

14 - America
11 - England

Band Members Country of Origin: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

50 - America
50 - England
3 - Germany
1 - Tanzania
1 - Australia
1 - Japan
1 - Northern Ireland

Decade Released

15 - 90's
6 - 70's
2 - 60's
1 - 00's
1 - 80's

Year Released

4 - 1994
3 - 1991
3 - 1995
2 - 1997
2 - 1993
2 - 1971
1 - 1975
1 - 1965
1 - 1979
1 - 1968
1 - 2006
1 - 1987
1 - 1992
1 - 1970
1 - 1972

Genre:
9 - Alternative
5 - Rock
4 - Grunge
2 - BritPop(Rock)
1 - Glam Rock
1 - Punk
1 - Post Grunge
1 - Hard Rock
1 - Metal/Rap

I'll admit that I am procrastinating on the countdown at the moment. In all honestly I am having a crisis of consequence. Not quite sure what that means, but it reads kind of of how I feel. My number 25 song is divisive, not to anyone else, but to me. It deserves to be there, but I am not a massive fan so I am spending some time arguing with myself about it. No doubt I will win the argument, but which song will frolic up to 25??

Stay Tuned....

However, this little circumstance affords me the opportunity to regale you with the next tale in my Hauraki Escapade.

This happened late in the year, November 1998 or 1999 i think. Chris and I were hanging out at home one evening listening to the new rock zone when The Green Man announced he was holding a Christmas Party. It sounded pretty cool. A secret location, as much Speights and Wild Turkey bourbon as you could drink, 8 Foot Sativa (spelling??) playing live and much more.

The catch was you didn't ring up and win tickets. You didn't answer a random question and enter a draw. You didn't have to answer the phone with the catchphrase. (which, incidentally, was "Sweet As Nana's Nuts" according to the T-Shirts we later picked up...)

You had to do something awesome to get tickets. And we thought, we're awesome, so lets go. We fell back on our old favourite and picked up alcohol and rolled over to the studio. This time it was locked, (lesson learned, huh?) so we called up the station on Chris' cell phone and when we eventually got on, we told The Green Man we had brought him beer to swap for tickets.

Result. Tickets received!!

There was another catch. Chris was 17. I was 19. The drinking age was 20. We had to meet in an Iconic Auckland bar that had just shut down permanently called Park In The Bar. Also, it was the day of Christmas in the Park and we had promised to go with Chris's girlfriend at the time, Michelle and Sarah W.

Tricky, tricky...

Anyway, we strolled along to Park in the Bar at 9am on the Saturday morning, and lied through our teeth about our ages. We argued that we couldn't have got tickets without being 20, and we'd left our ID at home because we were going to get messy and didn't want to lose our stuff. Maybe they bought it, maybe they didn't care, but whatever we got it.

A quick beer later and we're on a Party bus with Radio Hauraki paper bags over our heads driving around the city in what seemed like large circles. It was only 20 minutes or so later when we arrived somewhere in Grey Lynn I reckon. And after that, things went spastic.

Miss New Zealand was there, Chris was determined to get a phone number. We both settled for autographs. The band was loud, and insane. Not my thing, but at that point I really didn't care. They ran out of Speights, so filled up Chris' pint glass with bourbon. We watched near naked chicks wrestle in a paddling pool full of vodka jelly. It was a pretty gnarly day.

So we bailed with enough time to roll back to the Shore and pick up the girls. Chris was ..... intoxicated shall we say and I remember him saying he had to hold it together so Michelle didn't know he was drunk. He did a wonderful job. She asked if he was drunk before we got out of the car when we arrived at their place.

The rest of the time was a blur, but I remember meeting up with a couple of people we had met earlier in the day at the big gun by the museum. I remember walking for ages from View Rd in Mt Eden to the domain and back and I remember lying in bed with Sarah (nothing happened, I was even lamer back then than I am now) for five hours listening to The Sweetest Thing by U2 on repeat.

I hate that song now.....

Next time I will explain how I won a girl off Radio Hauraki...

In a fucking nutshell..... screw you crap music, i'll stick to Rock thanks very much for offering.

 

Grunge vs BritPop!! The eternal argument? Not really.

So this guy, Simon Sweetman, has a blog on music on stuff.co.nz and a guest blogger (Joe the Boxer?/) posed the question above.

Please have a read and then I'll tell you how it is.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/blog-on-the-tracks/8661700/Grunge-Vs-Britpop

Firstly there is no such thing as Grunge vs Britpop. Britpop is a sad joke, BritPopRock on the other is a legit genre that people who enjoy rock music can come to terms with.

Mr Boxer makes a valid point in that calling something iconic is done way too much.

Also, in writing this Blog I HAVE noticed that everything comes from America or England. We know that there are some brilliant Aussie bands around. Silverchair comes to mind along with INXS if you want to go a bit old school on it.

I enjoy Kiwi Rock Music as well and I can only imagine that no matter where you live, or what language you speak there are a few local bands you love and you can't understand why they never hit the big time. The Exponents always come to my mind when my fragile little brain wanders off down that set of tracks...

Historically the general music purchasing public are to blame. We only wanted to spend $30 on something we knew (or thought we knew) would be a good investment. So we went along with what everyone else was buying. Sure, singles were available, but not a particularly good investment.

I-tunes is great for combating this problem. You can pick up pretty much any song for $2.37 or so. The only problem with that is people then stay away from albums which will in turn destroy the art of making an 'Album' and that is truly depressing. Just last night I was putting together my new home theatre system and to check the speakers i needed music playing constantly so I fished out Throwing Copper - Live and had that playing in the background as I wired up the speakers one by one.

I learnt two things. (1) it is very cool to listen to the depth of sound improve as you add speakers randomly all over the lounge. (2) Throwing Copper is a god damned sensational album.

Now that I'm over that, lets read quietly while I explain another view on the Grunge vs BritPopRock argument. Mr Boxer looked at the situation from 5 different perspectives. Worldview/philosophy; aesthetic, bands, tunes, legacy/influence and eventually gave the win to BritPop(Rock). I think we can tackle this one.

Firstly let me reiterate my opinion on arguments. Everyone is allowed an opinion, it's not my fault that your opinion is wrong.

Worldview/philosophy

The feeling of cynicism and anger/frustration that grunge interred simply appealed more to me and my social group that the whinging that accompanied the BritPopRock scenario. No matter how much you love Oasis, there is always that spoilt brat quality that they dragged around. Whereas as most of the grunge guys just seemed pissed off with everything and couldn't be bothered complaining about it. As Mr Boxer said, simply easier to have stoned/drunk DAM's (Deep And Meaningful) with all around. But it wasn't whingy.

I agree with the political stuff. I think however, that politics was nowhere near as big a factor with grunge and BritPopRock than it was with Punk back in the 70's. No idea why, but I also associate politics and music with The Police, a band that couldn't be further from grunge or BritPopRock if it tried.

Aesthetic

Well Mr Boxer, you got it right again. Lets see: a bunch of skinny, pasty, mismatched English blokes wearing tight denim and skinny ties vs the rebellious, don't give a fuck, ripped jeans, big sweaters, skate shoes of Grunge. It was like being at school again, it was uniform that you could wear and everyone knew what you were about and you didn't need to iron it on a Sunday night.

The first image I think of when I hear the word grunge is probably the back of the CD insert of Nevermind with a blurry picture of the band with Kurt Cobain giving the finger

As for BritPopRock, I can't really think of a defining image of the genre, but if I stretch my mind I could use this one

or this one

Tunes/Bands

Grunge has far better band names for starters. Although to be fair, which every side had Stone Temple Pilots on it was always going to win because that is the best band name ever.

I'll use the same list Mr Boxer used but by fuck, I couldn't disagree with him further. Oasis, Blur, Suede, Pulp, The Verve, Elastica, Supergrass AND RADIOHEAD. For grunge: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Hole, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney AND THE MEAT PUPPETS AND CANDLEBOX AND DINOSAUR JNR

The difference is that while the Iconic (muahahah) songs (Wonderwall, Song 2, (suede??) Common People, Bittersweet Symphony, (Elastica??), Alright & Creep of BritPopRock are still great, the iconic songs of Grunge are better (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Alive, Today, Plush, Black Hole Sun, Would?, (Mudhoney??), Backwater, Far Behind and Feel The Pain.

Also the periphery around grunge had more penetration. REM got involved, Red Hot Chili Peppers were there and there abouts and bands like Cracker would never have been able to do what they did without the massive impact of grunge.

Legacy / Influence (which really is the conclusion, lets be honest)

Ultimately grunge took out Heavy Metal/Glam Rock in one movement and a short, explosive lifespan while BritPopRock was simply trying to hang on to relevancy once grunge went ballistic.

It might just be me, but I hear more new bands trying to ride the grunge train (Rise Against, Seether) than bopping along to a pseudo BritPopRock beat.

It seems to me that while Grunge died in a fiery, epochal moment, the memory lives on because of its untimely end rather than the sad wasting death of BritPopRock.

Maybe if Kurt Cobain was still having hissy fits at Dave Grohl and Dave Novoselic about who gets to use what percentage of the band name in their solo projects and people made pilgrimage's to the lamp post that a drunk and drugged Gallagher brother had wrapped his Jeep around a few years after releasing What's The Story, Morning Glory? I might be singing a different tune.

Play on Mr Boxer, play on!!

They're all there, all your favourites, Aluminium, Magnesium.... oh wait, no no no, that's pretty damn clever....

 

Number 24
Song & Artist: What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - REM
Album & Date: Monster - 26th September 1994
Nationality of band: American
Members at release: Bill Berry (Drums - American), Peter Buck (Guitar - American), Mike Mills (Bass Guitar - American), Michael Stipe (Vocals - American)

YouTube:

My rant;

So many reasons to love this track. It's part of a tribute to Kurt Cobain, who died not long before it was released. Also it seems to be a counciling session for Michael Stipe who tried, but failed to get get Kurt to go to Georgia to chill out in the days before he kissed the shotgun.

For me, REM in 1995 live at Western Springs was my first concert and this track was the most explosive thing I'd ever encountered. I went with my dads friend, Swanny and his wife Wendy. Now, If you don't know them, you're thinking, what a lame-o plan; go to a concert with two old people. Well fuck you, let me tell you that there were no two people I would have rather gone with. Swanny was a hard drinking dude, with a kick ass sense of humour. He really enjoyed asking girls I brought out if we had condoms.... embarrasing then, but hilarious at the same time. All the girls hated i, I kept bringing them to see him.... He was chaperone for a date my brother went and is general all round good guy. The god-father I never had.

Wendy died a few years after from some type of cancer, but I'll always remember her stuffing a botle of rum into her pants befre heading into the Springs.

When Grant Lee Buffalo and Crowded House had finished their sets, there was the mandatory pause for a while and this track exploded in the dark. Lights flashed and for a small moment there was only me, What's the frequency, Kenneth, the faint smell of weed on the wind and the night. AMAZING.

This is one of the many times I bought an album because I heard the lead single on Hauraki and was initially disappointed with the other offerings. But over time I have come to terms with what the album itself is trying to achieve and it occupies a special part of my musical memory.

To the track itself, it has everything you want. A grunty, grungy electric start, a statement about benzidrine, followed by a statement about how frazzled he was, pained and locked out, no, not up to speed. A kick ass riff that repeats throughout.

There are a series of burning statements through, "Withdrawl in disgust is not the same as apathy" and "You said that irony was the shackles of youth" amongst others.

I'm not a musician, but there is a great shaking guitar noise that repeat through (listen at around 1:33) which gives the track depth and personality from everything else around.

Its uses the great sound (uh-Huh) technique that we all have to yell along with everytime it comes along. It's a song of sad lyrics with a extraordinary upbeat riff that tracks along marvellously as Stipe appeals desperately to you all the way until he tells you not to fuck with him near the end.

I don't often reference the video for these songs, but this one is cracker. I especially love the way he moves (when he starts to move). This is the epitomy of a great rock video. CLICK IT.

Bands: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

13 - America
11 - England

Band Members Country of Origin: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

49 - America
47 - England
3 - Germany
1 - Tanzania
1 - Australia
1 - Japan
1 - Northern Ireland

Decade Released

15 - 90's
5 - 70's
2 - 60's
1 - 00's
1 - 80's

Year Released

4 - 1994
3 - 1991
3 - 1995
2 - 1997
2 - 1993
2 - 1971
1 - 1975
1 - 1965
1 - 1979
1 - 1968
1 - 2006
1 - 1987
1 - 1992
1 - 1970


Genre:
8 - Alternative
5 - Rock
4 - Grunge
2 - BritPop(Rock)
1 - Punk
1 - Glam Rock
1 - Post Grunge
1 - Hard Rock
1 - Metal/Rap

Yeah, we do!!!