Music impresses me when it does something I can't do well and wish I could. Like fantastic piano playing: The Whitlams, Tori Amos, Ben Folds Five. Really good melody blows me away because I can't write melody. Heath is blown away by my rythmn, beats and strumming styles. My funky chord skillz. Why? Because he can't do it.

Interesting we jam best when Heath comes up with a beat and I jam to it. It's how write when I'm in Approximate mode. I write a beat and jam over it with a few riffs I have lying around. With Heath I make something up on the spot, not usually more than a couple of chords. It's fun...

The stuff I feel I really enjoy the most, the stuff I most proud of is the stuff I've written on my own strummed on acoustic and Heath has added melody and vocals. Like "Lucy". Originally an acoustic demo by myself with acoustic melody plucked over the top, with Heath's added lyrics it became so much more. Then Daniel added an awesome if simple bassline and added an extra layer. Bruce dropped by and changed the song completely from a soft acoustic Disarm/Matchbox 20 (gag) song to the rock-out fest that it is now. And I love it.

We've just finished of recording "Lucy" and "Glory" at home and we're now going to do the rounds to local studios and ask them the big question. "Can you do better, and proove it". We personally think the demos sound great (ignoring a few mistakes in playing and a few pops/hiss in recording), but we also know we know nothing at all about mixing. Which makes us wonder how people who've payed so much for a demo to be made can be happy with how crap they tend to sound. Why pay $300 to have an "expert" record you play live and stick you on CD? Piss off. We can do that and did and a thousand times better.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully we'll find someone as enthusiastic to work with us as we are about the music.

I've finished writing the basics to another song that I'm already really liking. I'm feeling the same way about it as I did with Lucy all that time ago. I'm feeling enthusiastic about music again. This is good.

Writers block is bad but enthusiasm block is the killer.

Subject URL: Dancer In The Dark DVD

Dancer In The Dark was one of my favourite movies of last year. So it's always hard to read such harsh reviews of it as linked above. The DVD transfer quality sounds awesome though and I'd love to borrow and see it again. Most interesting in the review is this slab 'o text :

About 24 minutes into the movie the director says that there is no point in watching the rest of the movie - the scenes we have seen are sufficient. As the movie continues, he becomes less and less interested in commenting. Close to the end he comments that directors should be forced to watch their own movies ten times over in a row - he thinks movies would be shorter as a consequence. His last words, over the credits, are "Oh, f*** it".

I have a friend who refused to see the film because he hates the directory. From the above I can understand why, he sounds like a completely tool.

Subject URL: Powderfinger live in USA

Someone trying to flog off Powderfinger live CDs from the US. Could be an official radio thing or a CDr of a tape off the radio. Who know, who cares. Most interesting to me though is that the setlist included "Ziggy Stardust", no doubt a cover of the David Bowie classic. I'd love to hear that as Bernard has always thought he was David Bowie and actually does a passible impression of him. It was only until this latest album that anyone noticed, he previous kept this talent to b-sides.

Subject URL: TMNT

John Woo, CGI, Turtles. Bring it on. I had a friend in year 7 who was in love with April O'Neal and carried a "photo" of her around in his wallet. Did you know in the UK they were Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles because "Ninja" sounds too violent? The UK is strange.

I finally got off my scrawny ass yesterday and bought the album that influenced me the most while first learning guitar, "Nevermind". This is one tape I've had on tape for as long as I can remember liking music and I would have thought it would have been one of the first for me to buy on CD when I finally got some cash... but no. I was lame. I wanted the original pressing with the wanky hidden track. Then I gave up on that and just wanted to pay less than $20 for it. Finally I found it and was in the right mood to buy it.

It really is rather good isn't it? For cheesy early nineties pop anyway. "Something In The Way" punched me in the gut again and despite not having heard it in years, I still knew every word to every song.

Songs for the influence album, "Polly" and "Lithium". The first two songs I ever wrote are essentially me trying to be these two songs (sans lyrics).

I tried to look inside our kettle today and couldn't. It doesn't open. I looked for the "no servicable parts inside" sticker but couldn't find one. The brown scum inside is trying to escape and there is nothing I can do to stop it.