Hey!
Chris Cornell's tragic passing and what it might mean for our culture's attitudes to mental health, big pharma, ageing, art and the catharsis believed to be at the heart of alternative music. Also Dan hurt his foot again which touches on a lot of the same stuff.
Corbyn is actually putting up a fight in old blighty just as the tories push for the violent killing of red dogs - coincidence much?
And Trump in Saudi Arabia - same as it ever was. Assange is slimy. Russia is a thing.
Bumper music;
Fazerdaze - Lucky Girl
Chris Cornell - Follow My Way
Jimi Hendrix - Foxex Lady
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
Hey!
We struggle, really, to make sense of the breaking news that Trump has fired the guy investigating him. Does fascism require a certain deftness of efficient political control or is it all just grifting mobsters in sharp uniforms? France has an election, which is more than can be said about some people, South Korea excepted.
Dan heroically watches Shipley and Clark's 9th Floor episodes. We celebrate Tax Freedom Day, which is a dumb day for idiots.
And the Government does everything it can to make the Pike River story feel as odious and dark as it possibly can.
Bumper music;
Charly Bliss - Ruby
At The Drive In - Hostage Stamps
Skating Polly - Hail Mary
Puff Daddy - Come With Me
Hello!
RNZ have a new interview series with past NZ Prime Ministers. Dan's checked it out, Dave hasn't. This is his story of their story.
The Labour Party announced something to do with immigration, and then it was all just shouting.
Unions flexing like they're on the pull; the aged care equal pay settlement, and the spinning of the Government's reluctant part in it, are sights to behold. And not even the backbone industry of our nation - fast food - is immune to industrial strife.
And the UK is having extra politics.
bumper music;
Lana Del Ray - Love
DJ Food - Mr Quicke Cuts The Cheese
Honeyblood - Babes Never Die
Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
Hello again,
This is part 2 of episode 12, which we spun off as it got quite long and also, while we don't go into much detail, hearing any discussion of chemical attacks on civilians isn't something that I've found very easy to deal with when the topic lurches into the fore in everyday conversations about current affairs. So I want to signpost this as much as possible here.
The world's response, the Trump admin's response and social media's response to the attack are each uniquely terrifying things. With no quick fix or clear moral path, what is to be made of us idle witnesses of atrocities?
Bumper music:
Wagner - Die Walkure Act 1 Ochestervorspiel
Vaughn Williams - The Lark Ascending
Hello,
All of a sudden, multiple stress points appear in the NZ government. Corruption charges, PR misfires and economic bullets fired squarely into our own ecological feet. Does the left hand know what the right wing is doing? Did Key take the only good EA with him? Bloody shambles, mate.
Also a snake does hard drugs, Sonny Bill Williamson becomes the altar for a nation's reckons, and could you withstand a vigorous deplaning?
This is part 1 of 2. In part 2 we talk a great deal about Syria, the recent chemical attach and the USA's strike in response. Because of the length and the fact some people may want to skip any conversation about such attacks we've split these episodes up.
Bumper music:
Jesus Chris Superstar film OST: Overture
Mark Lanegan: St Louis Elegy
The Dandy Warhols: Hard On For Jesus
Hello!
First in the news is Bill English's very own #pizzagate. Food is culture - just what does this circular monstrosity tell us about New Zealand's soul?
This week it's all about peninsulas. Korean tensions abound against an uncertain international stage. And Britain may not be in the Barksdale clan, but it will go to war over that rock.
Finally, the revelations in Hit and Run may be shocking, but it's the flimsy denials which really shake your belief in the NZDF.
Bumper Music:
Pile - Hairshirt
Massive Attack - Babel
The Feelers - Right Here Right Now
The Afghan Whigs - Demon in Profile
Hey!
This was recorded last weekend, before all the news happened.
Dave's finished the book, and there's a lot to unpack. The fog-of-war as applied to journalism, with Syria Opinions and Dave calling Michael Weiss "David" throughout. Also Max Key.
Dan answers some moral quandaries. The government - this or the next - must take a pro-choice position on abortion. We must all just stay engaged, man. And intergenerational warfare reigns for another week.
Bumper music:
Nolay - Gotta Love It
Chainsmokers & Coldplay - Something Just Like This
Aimee Mann - Patient Zero
Silversun Pickups - The Pit
Hi!
It's time for a quiz - let's find out how Tory Dave is. Dan poses some ethical dilemmas. The new Labour Party leadership take a stand on pizza topping. And The Daniel Blakification of New Zealand's social services. We break down more doors than that kid on the BBC. Plus, more from that book...
Links:
David Slack on the state of housing
Laura McQuillan on gender/generation stereotypes
Stephanie Rogers, Morgan Godfrey & Eric Crampton on RNZ re raising the super age
Drew Fairweather on This Week In Atrocity
Bumper music:
Mark Lanegan Band - Beehive
The Jam - Eton Rifles
Crystal Fairy - Crystal Fairy
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
Tom Waits - Lie to Me
And because I forgot to list last week's episode's bumper music, it was;
Anderson .Paak - Come Down
The Clean - Tally Ho
Shaggy - It Wasn't Me
Supergroove - Can't Get Enough
Good evening,
Regional New Zealand is struggling in real life but is literally a dream for Dan.
Jacinda Ardern played a bonus stage to gain experience and suddenly levelled up. Jane Clifton, who's name I utterly forgot during the episode, had this to say.
Bill English has had a bit of time to settle into the job of leading the nation, but apparently decided nah.
But mostly; an ex-MP wrote a sexy novel about MPs. It is utterly amazing.
Hello! Sorry about the delay!
I know we said we wouldn't be on this every episode but the Trump administration is just too bizarre. Is there a wider geopolitical game of statecraft here, or is it all just dumb, ugly graft?
We resurrect MBC's for a Fake News Special - the topic; pornography.
And we get deep stuck in to the recent kerfuffle regarding Willie Jackson and the Labour Party. Is there a divide between unreasonable wooly liberal identitarians and good keen kiwi economic battlers? Did one of them tell you that? Did he have a moustache? In the battle between progressivism and conservative leftist sexism the fault of the progressives? We apparently need to ask?
Bumper music:
Honeyblood - Ready for the Magic
Sky Ferreira - I Blame Myself
Color Me Badd - I Want To Sex You Up
Wagner - Das Rheingold: "Sanft schloß Schlaf dein Aug'"
Hi, we're back for the first episode recorded this year, 2017.
A fair bit has happened. But first, birth! How does post-collapse survivalism account for the miracles of modern medicine which only society provides?
Trump has been president for only a few short catastrophes but already the doom is setting in. Check out the podcast This Week In Atrocity as mentioned in this episode coz it's not like we're gonna be able to keep up all by ourselves.
Kevin and the art of party economisation. Dan comes face to face with a wild call out.
And it's election year - the MoU between Labour and the Greens gives NZLP some leeway to its right, but is social conservatism the way to play? How anti-Winston is it possible to be? This recording has been overtaken by events so I'm not sure we stand by the conclusions we come to here, given how strawy this camel is getting.
And Peter Thiel's pisstaking of the NZ polity leaves us all red faced, but specifically the dolts who can't see beyond their industry.
Bumper music:
Wiley - Back With A Banger
Yello - Oh Yeah
Bombfunk MCs - Freestyler
Murder 1 - No Woman No Cry
Hello!
It's that time of year again where we round up the best, worst, most embarrassing and disappointing moments of 2016 in popular music. We stayed relatively sober and focused this year and the results this time are are, at the very least, listenable. 2016 was a morbid year, but far from moribund.
Featuring our musical correspondent Mike of Riot Radio.
Our full best-of 2016 playlist can be found here:
Playlist is roughly first third Dan, middle third Mike, final third Dave.
"Rock Music: I don't know what's wrong with it" - An interview with Street Chant's Emily Edrosa
War!
Coming to you live from Day 0 of the Israeli-Kiwi conflict - we are apparently at war. NZ supporting a vote to restate the long and widely held international position on plainly illegal settlements was the provocative act. Poor Bill English has been prime minister 30mins and already has to deal with this nation entering the bloody conflicts of the middle east.
In other news, English might be on to something with prisons. He probably is not on to much with the families of the Pike River miners.
Joining us this episode is Mike of Riot Radio, who'll be back in episode 5 for our annual music roundup extravaganza.
Bumper music; The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky
Hey, John Key only resigned.
2016: All Politics All The Time comes through with another massive hit. Key's gone, out of nowhere into nowhere. Do we actually have a pundit class or are we flying blind (or at best, with one eye)? What does Key's resignation mean for the disaffected factions he kept a lid on? Did Collins make a massive mistake? Again? Are things about to get... worse?
And, as Bill English revisits his old early 2000s ambitions, so to does Kevin with DJ Shadow.
Bumper Music:
Mozart - Requiem
DJ Shadow - Stem/Long Stem (feat. Duncan Garner)
Black Grape - Squeaky
Carly Rae Jepsen - LA Hallucinations
Hey now,
We had an earthquake since we last chatted. Is it too soon to ask "what's up?"
In a new age of strong-man politics - Trump, Putin, Duterte et al - will it be unusual in the future for a world leader to die at 90? Fidel Castro checked out this week, leaving his cafe empire to the residents of his home city; us.
Trump remains president-elect, and yet the left is the problem apparently. Is "identity politics" alienating navel gazing, certain to ruin our chances with the salt of the earth? Or is it a target you can move about at will when you're angry about getting owned. If nobody is arguing in good faith, could it actually be many things?
Is fake news a problem? Can the media reform? You'll never guess what the answer is. Take our quiz to find out.
Bumper Music:
Sad13 - Fixina
Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan
Empire of the Sun - Two Vines
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - If It Was a Snake It Would Have Bit You
Hello,
This is about fascism arriving, and being accepted, into the United States.
Audio links: Lamia Imam talks to Kim Hill, Chapo Trap House re Clinton's loss.
Bumper Music:
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor
Rich Robinson "Only A Pawn In Their Game" (Bob Dylan)
Divine Inspiration "The Way (Put Your Hand In My Hand)"
A Tribe Called Quest "The Donald"
Hey! Sorry for the delay. Moving house sucks.
The USA election is nearing a close, but the sheer weight of loose ends means any narrative closure is still a distant dream.
The loss of Helen Kelly is incredibly sad, and we mourn for what NZ may have looked like had she lived a long and proper time.
In a terrible game of Would You Rather, the nation tosses up gang vigilantes vs thousands more police. Cops get cute on social media while operate under false pretences out and about.
And Judith Collins' assertion that poverty can never influence crime puts talk radio out of business.
Bumper music:
The Kingsman - Louie Louie
Aimee Mann - Can't You See?
YG - FDT
Crystal Fairy - Drugs on the Bus
Hey
Aaron Smith had a sex and the whole nation went nuts. Sports, eh. Don Brash is back. Congrats to all the mayors. Trump's sleaze velocity is too quick to properly measure. And libertarianism gets an airing.
Bumper music:
The Naked and Famous - Young Blood
Roots Manuva - Witness
Best Coast - In My Eyes
The Right Brothers - Bush Was Right
Hey!
Kevin meets a South African. We have a few drinks and a few drinks have us - the listener is saved from a diatribe on Syria by Dave injuring himself. Kids these days can't even maths. And nostalgia for times of great embarrassment almost make me delete this episode. Hurrah.
Bumper Music:
Lady Chann - Not Me
Paul Simon - Under African Skies
Queens of the Stone Age - the Blood is Love
JME - Don't @ Me
Hello!
The new iPhone is here so we're a tech podcast now. What does this mean, at all?
Wellington isn't the only place having a mayor (though we are), Auckland is also getting the business. Its race is somehow both more moribund and more exciting.
KFC violence is violence.
Kevin has a go at pick up lines.
And the aliens are coming, so how are going to sort out adolescent rebellion, cultural appropriation, nuclear war and what new music is dope before they arrive?
Bumper music:
MIA - Borders
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - El Vacio / Piojos Histericos
Millionaire - Body Experience Revue
Carly Rae Jepsen - When I Needed You
Hey! It's a drugs episode!
Minister of Health denies snorting fake coke. Good lord almighty.
Kevin tries weed philosophy. Goes as expected.
The Spinoff on the Chiefs [1], [2].
Jeremy Corbyn vs Hogwarts Labour. Marijuana vs Parliament. White Male Default Finance Expert syndrome explored.
Bumper music:
Zack De La Rocha: Digging for Windows
Carly Rae Jepsen: Body Language
The Black Crowes: High Head Blues
Pulp: Cocaine Socialism
Hey, how's it going?
Harambe's effect on local body politics is far from over. The mayoral candidates' shift allegiance (game of thrones theme intensifies) and so do we.
Kevin gets some, gives some.
And in our quick fire round to finish; France, Trump, Bluegrass, Fox, Breitbart, Faith No More and Keidis.
Bumper Music:
Prophets of Rage - Killing in the Name
Deer hoof - Learning to Apologize Effectively
Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris - Hype
JD McPherson - North Side Gal
and the bumper music for last episode coz I forgot to note it then in case you didn't know:
Grimes - California
Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot
The Gutter Twins - Who Will Lead Us Now?
Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal
Hey man!
We live in a material world, and opinions are material, girl. What can Harambe can teach us about Post Truth Politics?
Also, Wellington will soon elect a brand new mayor. Who cares, and why you should too?
And Kevin has had an alright week, mostly pills and techno.
Hey!
The DNC happened and Clinton is the democratic nominee. Nobody died of surprise, but what does this mean for the contest of political ideas? Also, the GOP and the fast food strategy.
Helen Clark is standing for the position of UN Sec Gen and it is not mandatory that you support her. Kevin Rudd is not standing and it is mandatory that you laugh.
Housing is an issue, isn't it?
And a second Kevin is disappointed.
Bumper music:
CHVRCHES: Empty Threat
Massive Attack: Inertia Creeps
The Verve: Velvet Morning
Paula Cole: I Don't Want To Wait
Hey now!
The RNC is a grotesque parade, sure to be viewed by history as a simulation glitch, but what do Third Eye Blind think about it?
Millennials! Is there a culture of narcissism, or is there a culture war? Read Giovanni Tiso's bit on first home buyers.
Dan's 2000 novel gets another reading - remember to let us know what you think it is titled.
Nuclear Free is good, but is a boat a boat? Is racism only as bad as the most racist racist?
And McDonalds faces customisable scandal.
Bumper music:
Björk - Innocence.
Third Eye Blind - Jumper.
Pulley - Soberbeah
Wesley Willis - Rock N Roll McDonald's
Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charged Life