MySpace
myspace music my music  featured playlists  top artists  music videos  karaoke  shows  forums 


MySpace.com | rss | sign in
The Verlaines



Last Updated: 9/19/2009

Send Message
Instant Message
Email to a Friend
Subscribe

Status: Single
City: Dunedin
State: Otago
Country: NZ
Signup Date: 7/31/2006

Blog Archive
[Older      Newer]
 /  / 
Saturday, July 18, 2009 
Track list commentary1) Paratai Drive                
This was the last song written and recorded for this album. It stems from a true story involving my wife and I and a finance company. My wife thought we should heed the advice of the business pages of all the newspapers and diversify our savings so we invested in . . . a reputable company that advertised on TV. After we were informed the company had changed its name we became suspicious and resolved to take the money out at the earliest date. We did. It fell over two weeks later trapping the funds of innumerable mum and dad investors. Part of our suspicion rested on net research that divulged how much the directors were paying themselves. Since then we’ve seen the same thing with Madoff, Stanford et al. The 40K hookers on Wall Street came from a Fox News broadcast in September 08 (I think) just before the stock market crash. I remember fondly one of the female anchors on Fox praising their entrepreneurship.  
Anyway that was the background to the content. The impetus to write it (I might not have done so otherwise) stemmed from a TV 3 news item, about a finance company delivering an address to stakeholders who had lost their money. The company director gave a b-grade acting performance like he was a victim in all this too, though the second half of the item cut away to builders continuing work on his mansion on . . . you can guess the rest. If anyone knows of anyone who got wiped out in the collapse of the various finance companies last year please alert them to the existence of this song. It won’t get their money back, but the truthfulness of it might console them somewhat.

2) The Situation is Hopeless (not serious)    
This was originally recorded for Potboiler but withdrawn because we fucked it up somewhat. It was written in 1999 (to my best recollection) so the fires in the night refer not to Victoria but Malaysia or maybe Indonesia (where at the time they were burning forest for agriculture such that the city residents were choking on the smoke). As I think I said in the press release the song is sadly more relevant now than it was then. 
        
3) Paraphrasing Hitler             
I began writing the lyrics for this in late 2007 and slowly worked both the music and lyrics up through early 2008. It takes as its starting premise an episode of the documentary series The World at War dealing with the entrapped sixth army at Stalingrad and Hitler’s response to the plight of those 150,000 souls at Christmas 1943. In comparing the Bush administration to Hitler’s I can do no better than to reproduce the conclusion of a seminar I delivered in February 2009 featuring this song.

In summation, an unwavering faith in technological warfare, an ideology based on the notion of predetermination, a penchant for misleading dialects disseminated by a government/corporate controlled media to disguise violent actions combined with highly censored media coverage of foreign military adventures in the pursuit of oil. Which of the two administrations am I talking about?

Canadian writer and thinker John Ralston Saul writing as far back as 1993 wrote in his book Voltaire’s Bastards the following:

“There is in the late twentieth century a general feeling that Hitler—and perhaps Stalin, although people in the West feel no personal need to take him into account—was an accident of history. He caught us off guard, but we recovered in time to meet this force of evil in combat. Now he is gone. A horrible aberration. It isn’t surprising that no one wants to hold on to the memory of Hitler as an image of modern normalcy. But if this is still the Age of Reason and if Hitler is the great image of reason’s dark side, then he is still very much with us.”

GD
4:49 AM 
1 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Friday, July 17, 2009 
They ship worldwide.

And join the mailing list by visiting 

theverlaines.com
Currently watching:
Saxondale - Complete Seasons 1 & 2
Release date: 2009-01-13
3:44 AM 
0 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Saturday, July 04, 2009 
I have posted another song from the back catalogue.  Dunderhead from Over the Moon.

Also, I have been enjoying a couple of Del Shannon albums as you can see. "Home and Away" , his "Pet Sounds" from'67 and "The Further Adventures of Charles Westover", his "Sgt Peppers" from '68. A couple of groovy obscurities. DS.
Currently listening:
The Further Adventures of Charles Westover
By Del Shannon
Release date: 1997-04-08
5:06 AM 
3 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Saturday, June 27, 2009 

Current mood:  rebellious
Category: News and Politics
Introducing 'Paratai Drive', the first song from 'Corporate Moronic'.


3:37 AM 
0 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Saturday, June 20, 2009 

Current mood:  busy
There is a rumour that the band will be playing with Stephen Malkmus in Auckland this September...
Currently listening:
Flyin' Shoes
By Townes Van Zandt
Release date: 1994-10-04
2:54 AM 
2 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Monday, June 08, 2009 
We'd like to announce 14th July 2009 as the release date for the new album.
Currently listening:
Harps & Angels
By Randy Newman
Release date: 2008-08-05
7:23 AM 
5 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 


big thanks to ian loughran for all the work he did to make a last thursday a such great success. 

it was a great chance to fill everybody in on what we have been doing with ourselves, and to present some of the new songs.

Artwork nearly done... 

Not long now....


Currently listening:
Home & Away
By Del Shannon
Release date: 2006-11-06
3:57 AM 
2 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 

Current mood:  busy
Category: Music
Hi everyone


Just want to let you know about an event that is coming up.  


To help celebrate NZ Music Month we are taking part in an event hosted by Toroa Radio.

Here's are the details from their press release.


"Join us for an evening where the band will talk about the heady days of the 80’s, right up to what the band are doing right now.
The evening will include an open floor Q & A session as well as a chance to hear some live acoustic Verlaines songs. The host for the evening will be Toroa Radio’s Scorcher show programmer “Loff”.
Don’t miss this chance to share an evening with one of New Zealand’s most renowned and respected bands.
Thursday 28th May @ 7.15pm, The Dunningham Suite, Dunedin City Library.
FREE - tell your friends!"



So hopefully we will see you there!



ps the album has been mastered - just finishing artwork.  stay tuned...

Currently listening:
19 Years: A Collection
By Alex Chilton
Release date: 1991-02-01
5:16 AM 
1 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Friday, April 03, 2009 

Current mood:  accomplished
Category: Music
Hi folks. News regarding the Verlaines new album. As of yesterday it is finished! We made the last "tweeks" to it on Wednesday with Tex Houston and it is now on its way to the mastering suite.



We are talking to labels and hope to get it out there in a few months. You know how it is!
If you want to be kept abreast of developements then you can email us...

theverlaines@yahoo.com

We are canvasing for interest in a vinyl run so if you are keen please indicate.

We are updating this site ourselves now. Incalculable thanks to Tony for establishing this place. We really appreciate it and you'll always have a place to crash at ours!
Currently listening:
Roadmaster
By Gene Clark
Release date: 1994-06-16
2:05 AM 
4 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 
Graeme and the Verlaines have made the new single, Yangtze Cod and Chips, available for download on this page. Select the Download option on the song in the myspace audio player to download the song to your computer. Also, as usual, you can add the song to your profile to spread the good music to the under-educated.

In addition, the cover and insert for the single are available in the Pics section of this page.
4:18 AM 
3 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate