I thought I’d share some sweet videos I’ve favourited on Youtube.

Neil Patrick Harris is the SHOE FAIRY. Fuck yeah.

Just like all the other movies from your youth you figured that if you watched Little Shop of Horrors again you’d ruin it because it wouldn’t be as good as your remembered right? If this one song is anything to go by I think that hypothesis is wrong!

500 Days of Summer wasn’t too awful, I guess. I mean Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred in it and I’ve loved him since I first saw 3rd Rock from the Sun. But this trailer looks like it’d make a much better movie!

You like True Blood too? Sweet.

Nothing!

Watch these videos in order and prepare to swoon.

Your move Jake.

Lately I’ve found myself downloading more music than TV and movies. It marks a shift in my happy place from concentrating on characters and images, to letting myself go and feeling the happy instead.

I am a huge fan of both pop and metal. But more than anything I love mash ups and covers. I imagine this is a big part of the reason I love the TV show Glee so much.
Pop music covered by metal and alt bands kill me every time. Take something familiar and fun like Britney Spears’ Toxic and get a Ukrainian alt metal band to cover it with heavy guitars and just enough scream and I probably wouldn’t notice if Snape was standing at my door (maybe I should listen to this next time I get tattooed).

It was with much delight that I discovered the covers compilation albums ‘Rest In Peace’ then. I’ve managed to get volumes 3, 4, and 5 so far but volumes 1 and 2 are eluding me.

If you’re into this kind of greatness have a listen to my picks below and then try to get your hands on these albums!

Camisado – My Love (Justin Timberlake)

One-Way Mirror – Fuck You (Lily Allen)

Mushmellow – Toxic (Britney Spears)

Sick Puppies – Say My Name (Destiny’s Child)

A Smile From The Trenches – Hot N Cold (Katy Perry)

While you could call me biased – I know a few of these guys personally and have been a big fan since I first heard them – there’s really no need to doubt my word though.

Afternoon Raj is a five piece band that mixes prog rock with reggae, dub, and ska influences. I love to skank so I have a huge amount of fun dancing to these guys! The Raj’s ringleader James Mason draws the crowd in with a huge smile and a genuine love for what he’s doing. Bede, Matt, Andrej, and Nick impress with guitar solos and great beats.

The crowd grows every time I see them play and more than a handful of us have learnt the words to their older songs. They know it and use it to their advantage! Their show on Saturday, at Wellington’s cool kid venue Mighty Mighty, kicked off with number one crowd favourite Lickity Split, a song that creeps up and kind of explodes. After a few originals guitarist Bede Eagle stole the mic to sing a cover (turns out it was another original!), I’m not sure what song it was but Brandon Boyd (of Incubus fame) could easily have been the one singing it. And then the short set concluded with a few newer originals.

Quite frankly I was relieved when the set finished, I was about to pass out from heat exhaustion. In a matter of 30 minutes I managed to go from tipsy and excited for the music, to AHH WOoo *dance* *dance*, to omg I think I’m going to drown in my own sweat, to I need fresh air and a chair or I’m going to throw up. It was awesome.

Afternoon Raj is the sound of Hawkes Bay in the big city, it’s the sound of summer, and it’s for dub and rock fans alike. These boys may work in offices by day but they’re drunk musical hippies at heart, singing at concerts bringing awareness to global warming and generally trying to save the world.
They’re yet to record an album, an album I’m looking forward to having on repeat, and I’m nervous about how they’ll capture their perfect live sound. They’re smart guys though, I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

Check out Afternoon Raj on Facebook and MySpace. (Don’t take the recordings on MySpace as an indicator of their talent, just an indicator of the style.)

Hear them in real life on the 6th of November at Watusi for a gig I am sadly going to be out of town for. :[

Photo credits to James Schollum

Music is something that didn’t really come into my life until I was a tween. I don’t have the early memories of music that many do surrounding their first years. I do remember Mums reggae christmas tape, her Michael Bolton CDs, and that I got a New Kids on the Block tape when I was five.

My first foray into metal came when I was about 11 years old. My Mums partner was a huge Metallica and Megadeth fan. I really liked Megadeth when I heard it. So much so that I convinced two friends to do a dance to it in our Primary School talent quest. It’s pretty embarrassing thinking about it now!

I listened to Megadeth around the same time I got into Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, Destiny’s Child and Spice Girls. Spice Girls were the first band I ever became obsessed with. I had their CDs a VHS of the movie and I cut out every single picture I could find to plaster my bedroom wall. The one and only time I went trick or treating I dressed up as Sporty Spice.
Around this time mum found a TLC tape in our driveway which I claimed for myself. I loved it, perhaps without realising how dirty it was, and I learned the Waterfalls rap off by heart.

The first years of high school saw new genres added to my love list. Nu metal, rap, punk, and ska. I was introduced to many new bands through mixed CDs sold at the store and mix tapes borrowed from boys at school. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, System of a Down, MxPx, and Eminem were the big ones.

Later years of high school came and I was getting over my wigga stage. I no longer rapped along to Eminem every day. I was listening to Incubus, Alien Ant Farm, and Rammstein. All bands I still love to listen to. Rammstein was what first sparked my interest in the German language.

When I left home I was pirating a lot of music. I didn’t know what a lot of it was before I had it on my computer, I just went for punk. I ended up with The Ataris, Third Try, and Fenix TX splattered throughout the mix CDs I made for my discman.

A couple of years ago I got back into music after seeing the video for Helena by My Chemical Romance. It was love at first sight purely for aesthetics, but I found I loved the music too. I became obsessed and would spend hours on the MCRmy street team site. I knew every fact about the band and had hundreds of photos saved. But then Welcome to the Black Parade was released and it was different to the music I loved them for.
I joined MySpace and found the world of online music. I started listening to songs people suggested and found Fall Out Boy, Coheed and Cambria, and Mindless Self Indulgence.

These days Mums partner introduces me to most of the “new” music I hear. My favourite is Sonata Arctica.

I think it’s true what they say about the music you listened to when you were a teen staying with you for life. I still like the music I listened to when I was about 16, Rammstein and Incubus etc. And I’m not (too) ashamed to admit I think Fred Durst did some great stuff that I still listen to on long road trips.

Can you match music to periods of time in your life? Do you still like the music you listened to when you were a teen?

New old music from My Chemical Romance. This is a cover of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row, done in a punky style for the movie Watchmen coming out in March. I’m just excited to hear them do something new after over 2 years since their last studio release.

A theme song for many (if not most) females. And I don’t think that’s a good thing at all. That said, I can’t help but love Lily’s hair.

The Fear – Lily Allen

If you can’t see the video it’s been sucked out by your reader, click through to the site to view it :]
Lyrics
I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them

I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
‘Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah I’m on to a winner

Chorus
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic

And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault it’s how I’m program to function
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah I’m on to a winner

Chorus

Bridge
Forget about guns and forget ammunition
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner
Now everything is cool as long as I’m getting thinner

Chorus

So, good great news. Real Groovy Wellington and Christchurch branches are saved!!!

I went in there today to see how it was all going and get the Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium CD (which is so cool and only cost me $23 for 2 CD set! I’m listening to it as I write this) and I noticed someone using a voucher. I thought that was a bit odd considering they’re meant to be in receivership but I asked if I could use mine and the chick serving me said I could because they’d been bought. :D

Even better, the manager of the store bought it so nothings going to change. The Christchurch store has also been bought (by it’s current manager as well I believe).

One of my defining characteristics is my constant search for truth. I’m known at work for constantly checking things with Google.

If we receive a group forward that seems dubious my colleagues just say “Kim will find out if it’s real”. And I will. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. I’m determined!

I demonstrated this will power again yesterday when I wanted to find a song. I’ve previously spent hours looking for a music video when all I knew about it was that it was dance-y/techno-y and had two people dancing across a basketball court. I found it after a few hours of searching.

This time I knew the tune of the song, I thought it sounded like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I took at a guess at remembering some of the lyrics. The first and last time I heard this song was 5 days ago. I’ve never been a big fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers so the task seemed pretty big.

I thought the lyrics were ‘all I wanted was someone to…’. Google kept telling me the lyrics belonged to a group called Hidden In Plain View who are no longer together and don’t seem to exist on the internet apart from some lyrics and a Wikipedia entry. I was still pretty sure it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony’s voice is pretty distinctive.

Many many searches, reading of lyrics, and watching of YouTube videos later I decided to listen to the 30 second clips of the hundred or so RHCP songs in the iTunes store. The song I was looking for didn’t have the chorus as part of its clip but I recognised the tune enough when I heard it to look up the lyrics and hope I’d found the right one. I squealed and ran to tell the boy when I realised I had found it!

The song is Hard To Concentrate from the album Stadium Arcadium. The lyric I thought I knew was “all I want is for you to be happy”.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Hard To Concentrate

With the news that Real Groovy has gone into receivership I’m welcoming the arrival of JB Hi-Fi with open arms. Real Groovy has been great for imports, second hand CDs, and vinyl; but pricing on the popular music they stock is expensive compared to places like The Warehouse, often costing an extra $10.

I’ve been waiting for JB Hi-Fi to come after I first visited one of their stores in Auckland last year and scored some imported CDs at a great price. The site is the recently closed LV Martin and Son in the BNZ Tower in Wellington. They are currently advertising for ALL staff, so if you’d like to work at JB Hi-Fi pop over to their website and fill out an application form.