Gorillaz On My Mind

I've written an online only piece for Magneto on my history with/the history of Gorillaz. NPR and The Guardian are streaming their album Plastic Beach until it is released. The Guardian is going Gorillaz-crazy but if you were to check our just one thing from their Gorillaz Takeover it would be the Music Weekly podcast of which I am a regular listener.

Sampology and Laneway Festival

I've started writing for MAWSA's Magneto magazine. For those unable to pick up the beautifully designed mag on Massey Wellington's Campus, its articles are now becoming available online.

Here's an interview (including audio) with Australian turntablist Sampology.
I went up to the first St. Jeromes Laneway Festival to be held in New Zealand and wrote up this enlightening piece.



INTERVIEW: Sampology by Magneto

MSW

Here's a piece I did on Auckland band Moron Says What?!?! (order and amount of exclamation and question marks optional) for Music 101 on Radio New Zealand National.

Moron Say What!? on RNZ

I saw spin off band Lol-Fi recently and they're certainly worth a listen, if you're into joyful mentalism and distorted vocals. Which I am, particularly on the track Saaam.

A MUNTed Doco

So MUNT FM huh? It's a station at a turning point and a lot of people I've spoken to are unsure about what's been happening to it. Luckily I can now point people in the direction of this documentary which summarises some of the recent events between MAWSA (Massey Wellington Student Association) and MUNT FM.

A MUNTed Doco by Shaun D Wilson

UPDATE:
MUNT FM became Muse Radio which eventually shut down.

MUNT Forums

There's been two forums on the future of MUNT FM recently. MUNT now has some sort of future though a lot of details have to be worked out. This is only of interest to those intimately involved in MUNT but here are those forums.

MUNT FM Forum 19 October 2009 by Shaun D Wilson

MUNT FM Forum 15 October 2009 by Shaun D Wilson

A more easily digested documentary on the MUNT situation is coming.

Save Munt FM

The MAWSA Executive have voted to close Munt FM down at the end of the month! We’re going to try and fight this. Here are some of the ways:

1. A Facebook group to save Munt FM has been created:

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150099934557&ref=nf

2. MUNT DJs and supporters who are Massey Wellington students can request a Special General Meeting if 40 students sign a document saying that they want a meeting.

3. A petition will be written and will be available to sign from next week.

4. Lobby MAWSA! Ring, email and go see everyone at MAWSA. Load them with communications (especially this weekend), but make it constructive and in no way nasty. Keep it above board!

Also it looks like there will be a gathering outside Munt’s premises on Friday 16 October. I’ll be there.

Closing down Munt FM is a mistake. Massey Wellington has a lot of trouble in building up a sense of community within the student body - this will strike a nasty body blow. Instead of destroying Munt more support needs to be given to it. Obviously these are difficult financial times but this is not a solution. Stay tuned to Munt to help save Munt.

Herculean Cauliflower

Herculean Cauliflower (Thursdays, 5-7PM NZT) is my radio show for Massey University’s Wellington campus radio station: Munt FM. Here is a vaguely typical show (though somewhat more poptastic and rewind heavy than usual).

Herculean Cauliflower - Episode 49 (20 August 2009) by Shaun D Wilson

There are a few minor digital glitches in the recording. All other things that sound wrong happened live due to equipment failure or my own personal inadequacies.

Tracklisting

Monkey - Monkey’s World

Janelle Monáe - Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!

Phillip Bailey – Easy Lover (feat. P. Collins)

Chris Morris (The Day Today) – Uzi Lover

Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words

Stef Animal - One Two Three Four Five

Bits of:

Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

Wuthering Heights

by Kate Bush

DJ Magnet - Love Comes Running Up That Hill Quickly (Kate Bush vs Placebo vs Pet Shop Boys)

The Travelling Wilburys - Handle with Care (only the first half)

Various - Land of the Long White Cloud

Moron Says What?!?! - Nathalie, Touch Me There Again

Be Rough – Shaun D Wilson

The Sugarcubes - Tidal Wave

Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

An excerpt from Wiretap (Host: Jonathan Goldstein)

A bad mash up by a child (one of the songs guillotined is by Little Boots)

Girls Aloud – Biology

La Roux – Bulletproof (my stupid slow/fast mix)

Haunted Love - Sweet Baby

N.A.S.A. – Gifted (Feat. Santigold Kanye West; Lykke Li)

The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations

Speech Debelle - Better Days (Feat. Micachu)

Micachu – Turn Me Well

Amadou & Mariam - Masiteladi

Cansei de Ser Sexy - Art Bitch

Regina Spektor – Folding Chair

The Naked and Famous

On Herculean Cauliflower (Munt FM Thursdays, 5-7PM NZT) I play a lot of music and then talk about it. This is good… if fairly common in the music radio genre. Even better is when I get to talk about it to those who made it.

Thom Powers (The Naked and Famous) on Munt FM 24 September 2009 by Shaun D Wilson

I interviewed Thom Powers of Auckland group The Naked and Famous shortly before their excellent gig in Wellington. The Naked and Famous make fun, exciting and forward thinking music that should it not catch on with the wider public will prove once and for all that most of humanity are right ol’ fools. And that would be rather disappointing.

www.thenakedandfamous.com
www.thenakedandfamous.bandcamp.com

Triple A-Side

At the moment I am working on two very different EPs to hopefully be completed around the same time. One is a set of unusual new compositions (tentatively titled The Sketchscreen EP) and the other is a take on mashups you won’t have heard before (The Samplecrusher EP).

Because I’m not sure when I’ll buckle down and finish them; now seems as good a time as any to put a taster out.

Be Rough is a mashup made up entirely of artists starting with the letter B.
Extemplified is a journey through disparate sounds melded together with a piece of string and production trickery.
And solely for this mini-sampler is Alala Remix (Lovefoxxx Vocals Version); a remix of my remix of the Cansei de Ser Sexy song. My first remix of it is on The Recover EP.

Catastrophes through Media

‘Catastrophes through Media’ is a short documentary I made in 2008 very shortly after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar/Burma killing and injuring an enormous amount of people. It was also around the time of a deadly earthquake in China. I was affected quite profoundly by this and didn’t understand how people could be so blasé about it and even in some cases callous. I came to realise that people have already decided how they will react to certain types of news stories before they happen. From this idea came my short documentary discussing reaction to disasters from the media and the public. The public is represented by vox pops from Wellingtonians and the media by Mediawatch host Colin Peacock.

The magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province in China killed 70,000 and made 5 million homeless.
Cyclone Nargis which hit Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta killed 140,000 people, severely affected 2.4 million people and left 800,000 displaced.

Catastrophes through Media by Shaun D Wilson