New Zealand Hip Hop Stand The Fuck Up

What up brethas?!

My name is Damien and I have been known to partake in activities of a gansta. Erry day in Spag Junx you will see me rep'n my colours and flashing my 9. I have also recently acquired a bad ass chain with a dollar sign on it. The life is mean. Although this has continued as a joke through our group, I do have a true love of the world's rap music.Today I am hear to tell you about some of NZ's great hiphop/rap music.

First up I will hit you with some David Dallas. This guy has been around for a while now but you may not have noticed till the past year or 3. He started out in the band Frontline and released a few mean songs with his bros (i.e. check out Breathe With Me). He also appeared in Scribe's hit Not Many (Remix) (at about 2 mins in) which I don't think many people know about and is probably the best rap in the song. When I first listened to him ages ago I though he was just another typical rip off of the American rap scene but he has definitely grown into his own. Ever since being mentioned on Kanye Wests blog he has blown up and continues to release mean as songs. This track is from The Rose Tint and shows the great flow and beats:

 I am definitely going to keep following him and you should pick up some of his music too.

The next group I will talk about is Home Brew. I was only introduced to them this year (through concerts of @peace and themselves) and luckily they had just released and album. I bought that shit and listened to it thoroughly. It is a pretty awesome album that is quite honest really. Songs about the real life in NZ I guess. There is a lot of stuff that people don't see here and these guys expose a lot of it. Although it may look like they are a bunch of rough guys on the benefit, that promote drinking and drugs, they are really just being honest about some of us and how we get through the bad days. Here are a couple songs:

I love this song. It is addicting. I think it has something to do with the synths.

The next one is also amazing and is real consideration of the system we live in.

Chillstreet are a cool little NZ music duo. Tony Douglas and JimJamz have just put together a nice little EP called the KeepItKiwi.Ep (download it here, donate if you can). They make some really chill songs that just remind me sooooo much of home. This is the kind of the New Zealand I saw growing up in the North Island or maybe just heard as their accents and slang are just so familiar. I hope by posting this my white (hah) southern friends can see what it is like to be me or anyone else from a small North Island town. Here is one of there songs and although the rhymes are not amazing its just sooo chill:

 

Lets hope they make it.

Sweet that is all for now.

Damien (Wee-dey)

P.S. I am pretty sure all my flat mates have heard this stuff to death, but now I hope you can appreciate it too. If you know any great tunes let me know!

Recent Music #3: Great Lyrics

Sadly I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like to lately, but I've been super busy at a new school placement for my teacher training...It's been great to see lots of other people write posts though, tino pai e hoa ma!

I've always been really interested in song lyrics. While many people seem to focus on the musical aspect of a song over the lyrical aspect, I've always swayed more towards the lyrics myself. While I can appreciate a song for music alone (I love Explosions in the Sky, after all), for a band to become a true favourite favourite they generally have to have both amazing lyrics and music (hence my love of The Smiths, Pixies, Arcade Fire and Television). So, without further delay, here are three songs with great lyrics:

Deerhunter - Vox Humana

Deerhunter are pretty well known now; this is good because they're a great band (if you haven't heard of them yet, I also recommend Desire Lines and Nothing Ever Happened). The first release I heard from them was 2008's Microcastle which was a revolution in itself and continues to deliver (Twilight at Carbon Lake is possibly one of the best ever album closers). Microcastle was actually jointly released with a second, more experimental and atmospheric album called Weird Era Cont. which was meant to be a secret but sadly got leaked early. I can remember going into Galaxy Records (the Manchester Street store before the earthquakes) and opening the CD case before I bought it, taking way too long to work out how to get to Weird Era at the back because the CD tray opened backwards. Both albums are amazing, but Weird Era remains a favourite album to fall asleep to or have as background noise. From Weird Era Cont., here's a fan video for one of the best songs on the album, Vox Humana. Whilst the stream of consciousness lyrics may not read amazingly well on paper, Bradford Cox's delivery is perfect and takes them to a new level (when he sings "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know..." you just want to cry for him):

"And on the beach in the summer there were thunderstorms constantly, and they were unpredictable, nobody knew when they would come and nobody knew how long they'd last.
Sometimes they'd only last five minutes, and sometimes, weeks..."

If you liked that, also listen to:
Desire Lines (from Halycon Digest, 2010)
Nothing Ever Happened (from Microcastle, 2008)
Twilight at Carbon Lake (from Microcastle, 2008)
Famous Last Words (from Raiinwater Cassette Exchange EP, 2009)
Circulation (from Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP, 2009)
VHS Dream (from Weird Era Cont., 2008)
Never Stops (from Microcastle, 2008)

Memory Boy (from Halycon Digest, 2010)

mewithoutYou - My Exit, Unfair

mewithoutYou are an American alternative band in the true sense of the word (I haven't come across anyone else who sounds like them). They're an amazing combination of spoken-word vocals and stream of consciousness lyrics, with punky and freewheeling guitar, bass and drums doing their own thing around it. mewithoutYou is often labelled a Christian band, but as far as I know the singer Aaron Weiss isn't necessarily Christian, and his lyrics deal with a general spirituality and contain Jewish, Muslim and Christian imagery. Though I'm not religious myself (except maybe a little Buddhist), I regard Aaron Weiss as one of the best lyricists/singers I've ever heard so I urge everyone to listen to mewithoutYou since anyone can relate to most of what he talks about. Here is one of my favourite songs from their second album, 2004's Catch For Us The Foxes:

"My exit unobserved, my homesickness absurd,

I said 'water,' expecting the word

would satisfy my thirst!

Talking all about the second and third,

when I haven't understood the first..."

If you liked that, also listen to:
January 1979
Disaster Tourism
Carousels
Torches Together
(all from 2004's Catch for us the Foxes)

                             Dear Time's Waste - These Words Stick Me To You

Dear Time's Waste is the project of Aotearoa's Claire Danes, and is one of my favourite New Zealand bands. It's absolutely criminal that she her songs aren't getting huge numbers of views on youtube so hopefully this will help a bit. Her first album "Spells" is outstanding, and there should be a new album coming out soon. Here is the first DTW song I ever heard:

"We're holding hands across the ocean

but my grip begins to slip

salt water only makes me thirsty

eating away at the glue,

that sticks me to you..."

If you liked this, also listen to:
And So I Was Returning
Alice
(both from 2010's Spells)

Broad’s Bastards

Hi,

My first blog post. 

The Toulouse Crew is a wholesome flat. Named after a humble cat and upheld by domestic principles: cleaning, cooking and baking.

Yes the girls talk at turbo speed a side effect of their addiction to The Gilmore Girls and Ronan dresses to the word of the great ASOS.

Yes ASOS. Ronan loves ASOS.

Every so often (very often) the mail man will deliver an ASOS parcel at 7.30am to the Toulouse Crew Door with a delightful package for Ronan.

7am package delivery-- never for me

He claims these are shirts, shoes or bumper bags from the site of gods.

This is all a fallacy.

In reality these packages are a tactical cover up for the brutal, bad-ass and bone fide gang -- Broad’s Bastards.

Ronan created this monstrosity on completion of his biology degree. His love for all things genetically modified led him to the creation of the latest wonder drug.

‘Ronan’s Roulette’

Each leaf contains a different hard drug. Heroin, Cocaine, Acid, Ecstasy and a mega leaf (all four combined). You cannot tell which leaf has which drug thus the roulette.

Ronan's real life story

Each ASOS package is actually stacks of cash or packages of this drug.

Do things make sense now? That’s why Ronan buys ASOS, that’s why he studies so hard, that’s where he goes at night.

I may have said too much but the world needs to know the terror behind this face.

High on himself

Ronan I hope you will still love me after this

-- Nathahahalie xo

Shit I hear on the bus

Greetings,

Nearly every week I take the bus to my parents (sometimes when I feel good I bike). I used to treat the bus as a 30 minutes of brooding my mind until I reached my destination. Now I realize how foolish I was! People provide endless entertainment...

I enter the bus to find it absolutely packed, so I squeeze past everyone to the back of the bus (clearly the best part of a bus). Two girls, approximately 17 year old townies*, sit one seat behind me. Normally I would block out their voices, but the voices are incredibly annoying and penetrating and my defenses are lowered. 

Their conversation went something like this:

Yellow girl: "howz ya boy jack?"

Purple girl: "oh duno ay, i real want to luk sexy 2night for him"

YG: "yeah its gonna be sik"

PG: "we shud get sum ecky fur tonight"

YG: "oh yeh, defs shud get sum vodka too"

PG: "i rekon the most sexy thing is lyk to snort sum ecky wif a 50 dollar, or mayb coke wif a 100 dollar bill on a sports car wif just a bikini"

YG: "oh that is fukn sexy"

PG: "yeh not much in mi lyf goalz, just do drugz, be sxc, die at 40. lyf is gr8"

YG: "u r soo right, im not very smart but imma sxc"

They then talked for about half an hour about how they wanted to look sexy for some guys at a party that evening. I actually found myself laughing out loud in several occasions which got me some strange looks, but I couldn't help it. I was so tempted to ask them some questions, but at the same did not want to interrupt their flow.

Now every time I am on the bus I look for interesting conversations, and every time I look for crazier conversations. So expect some more ridiculous conversations and hopefully I may interview one later.

*Towny: One who loves the town.

~~``-- Townies is not a degrading term, townies are people too, fight for their rite and donate today--``~~

Wethey Originals thus far

This Sunflower lives on Matt's wall.

This festive tree lives at Maddy and Jasper's.

This one of a kind kitchen utensil set lives with the one of a kind Jackie Opie.

This centaur watches over the Spaghetti Junction lounge.

This is my completion of a half finished painting I found at the Eco Shop. It lives in Oliver's flat. It overlooks the driveway and thoroughly disturbs the neighbours - so much so that they requested it be removed from its vantage point. It defied their orders and still lies there!
It also proudly featured in a play, which I have already blogged about.

This one was commissioned by Regan Stokes and lives in his room. It is an enigma amongst my work: it features a total of zero faces on it.
It is my proudest painting moment thus far.

These tomatoes are living in my room presently. They lie on the floor and will be inevitably squashed.

This uncanny depiction of the mask was commenced (and concluded) mere days ago.

My tribute to the Apple Computers logo. It is an apple with a face.

Sharply dressed carrot.

This is Cuppa Joe and he is hot off the press.