Hughey Lewis And...

The News

Dad ordered a new computer, it's got some good specs and hopefully it'll be here by Monday. Unfortunately, it's before the HSC and I love to screw around on a new computer a lot, just to see what I've been missing out on for the past few years of having old operating systems and customising it. When I get it, I'll make a sound of my face like Bouzo has.

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Tunage update:

Today I've been studying to:

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road. We all love it and it's great and HAVE YA SEEN POLYTHENE PAM?
2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon. A space music classic.

Coming up is:

1. Beth Orton - Central Reservation. Folktronica milestone and a favourite 90s album.
2. Neil Young - On The Beach. One of my fave folk albums and Neil's best, IMO.
3. Gorillaz - Demon Days. And they're turning us into monsters!

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I don't really have any social events coming up in the next few weeks. Study is pretty much all consuming. This isn't a bad thing, I have a lot of work to do, so I'm not overly complaining. Except maybe a movie this weekend. After HSC, I'm looking forward to beer and music sessions. MxP album will be complete. Flex my creative muscle.

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Zombies are pretty rad, so I've been researching zombie films. A movie marathon seems to be in order:

• Night of The Living Dead
• Dawn of The Dead
• Dance of The Dead

Last one is not related to the first to George Romero films, it's just really, really funny and cool. If anyone is in for this, we could make it a pretty big one or not, whatevs.

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I don't really know what's going on in the world, haven't seen the news in the past few days. There's been a second earthquake in Indonesia, those poor people, and Kraft already ditched the horrible name of "iSnack 2.0" for their new Vegemite. Cheesemite, plox. And a flock of 200 birds flew into a jet engine, LOL!

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I also watched Hungry Beast on ABC1 last night at 9pm. It was quite good, I recommend you catch up on the website and then watch it next Wednesday. It's got the funnies and the seriousness and all that.

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Major Lazer - Hold The Line (feat. Mr. Lexx & Santigold)

Voices

I had my trail HSC Music Practical exam today. I sung and played (guitar) these three songs:

• Wilco - Outtasite (Outta Mind)
• Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
• The Beatles - A Hard Days Night

I think it went pretty well today. Harry sounded great playing the drums lightly (like a feather, mofucka) and Alex lay'd down some sweet basslines (he is black, after all) and changed his guitar levels on the fly. The vocal levels through the PA were great, and I have Mr. Chris Paton to thank for double-checking that for me. However, my guitar level was too high for Where Is My Mind? and too low for A Hard Days Night, an kink I must straighten out before the actual HSC prac exam.

Unfortunately, my vocal performance in Outtasite was not overly spectacular, with a few flat notes that I desperately did not try to hit and I also gagged (you know when you have a really parched mouth as a result of being sick and you dry reach and gag, yeah) on nothing, essentially, during the first chorus line. That wasn't so good.

Also, in A Hard Days Night, I had my usual problem of not-actually-being-able-to-sing-the-damn-song. Uh-oh!

Lastly, on the HSC point, I wish I could go back in time and change my songs. I'd love to perform:

• Windmills of Your Mind (Legrand/Bergmans)
• Bring Da Ruckus (Wu-Tang go SWIINNG - REPRAZENT!)
• Here Come The Rome Plows (Drive Like Jehu)
• See No Evil (Television)
• All The Way From Memphis (Mott The Hoople)
  

That'd be powerfully rad.

This leads me to think about which singers really fucking nail everything they do. Some people just have voices that make you think:
"Wow, your vocal chords must be lined in pure godliness"
For me, the people with these voices are:

• John Lennon
• Paul McCartney
• David Bowie
  
• Dusty Springfield (ESPECIALLY)
• Brian Wilson
• Colin Blunstone (The Zombies)
• Roger Daltrey
• Thom Yorke
• Elliott Smith
  
• Flavor Flav (LOLJOKEZ)

But yeah, these people can blow minds by just singing. And if they are a musical genius (aka: John, Paul, Brian and Colin), the harmonies that they form can make someone crash a car if they are driving and listening to them. This is why I advised Elliot to pull over when he listened to "Son of Sam" by Elliott Smith and "Care of Cell 44" by The Zombies. He did and look, he's still alive.

I wish I could sing 1/5th as good as these people. Then I'd ace my HSC and get into encore then get all the honeys. Fuck yeah!

The Zombies - Care of Cell 44
Dusty Springfield - Windmills of Your Mind