The winners for Right This Blog!

SIMON SWEETMAN

A couple of weeks ago I let you have your pitch to Right This Blog! We do this a couple of times a year - and it's always entertaining to see the suggestions and then to read the guest-blogs. Entertaining for you and me both.

Someone always tells me that I'm lazy. I can live with this. I've blogged five times a week for nearly five years - I think I'm allowed this indulgence. And I do it for you as much as I do me. It's your chance to get your voice out there - even more so than the comments section. A chance for an extended rant, to flex your writing muscle, and so on...

Maybe one of the winners will be motivated to start their own blog - fantastic. Or the chance to sound-off about 80s hair-metal bands or the state of New Zealand music might be enough - a one-time rant that satiates.

It's not easy writing a music blog for an everyday audience. You have to have something to say. You have to be prepared for people not to like it, that they will not be happy. And that they will not like you as a result. You might not be open-minded enough you see - and that will bring on hatred from those so clearly more accepting than you. You have to endure idiotic comments from morons, as well as thoughtful responses from very intelligent people. The latter are often the ones that (can) really hurt.

You might use short sentences. Or too many brackets. (Or both).

You might not like Jack White.

You might, in the end, have nothing to say.

So, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted the Right This Blog! offer for 2012, and I have been pondering. I want to pick a range of writers and topics - but I want to pick options that I myself will not (for whatever reason) explore. So thank you for all your suggestions. But these are the winners that I want to see right here, written here:

#1 Danny: "I've been trying to get picked for this for ages!" said Danny. And he has a point. An exclamation one. And several suggestions for topics. Fair enough Danny, I'll bite. You're in. Well earned. I love the fact that you've made more than one suggestion on more than one occasion - my apologies for previously overlooking you. You will Right This Blog! But I get to choose the topic from your list of suggestions. So I'm going with "Little River Band - too easily dismissed?" Let's hope so. Do your worst Danny.

#2 Crummy: Apparently I only write about bands that garner mainstream attention. And here I thought I was some aging hipster. It's so hard to know who to believe. Well Crummy tells me that he/she will "write about five up and coming bands from New Zealand (not necessarily bands I like) and get people thinking and talking about something other than the spoon-fed standard". Yes Crummy, you will. Deal.

#10 Darryl: Another list, a few suggestions - and I think Darryl, like Danny, might have played this game before and returned home empty-handed. So I'm definitely keen to see a guest-blog from Darryl. He asks for a Friday spot to explore "Top Ten worst sub-genres". He says "and you thought BBQ reggae sucked". Actually, most people thought that. So Darryl may have a Friday spot to explore this. Definitely.

#35 m.s.p: "I'd like to be considered please". Very polite of m.s.p. And so considered he/she shall be. The topic: "NZ's Worst Album Covers". Well, it's New Zealand Music Month after all, init? Isn't it? Have to do something to mark it.

#62 Jimbo: An offer to write on "the demise of the CD". Well, why not. Jimbo you're in.

So those are the five I have chosen.

But I am not sure if all five will front so let's have a couple of wildcards.

I'd also like to see the guest-blogs from #57 Mark H who said "I feel after reading this I should apologise for prior ****ishness on your blog - particularly after noticing the TISM blog I concede you know your oats. Ergo the only real blog I can touch on is being a d-bag in blog comments". Please write that Mark H.

And wildcard number two will be #4 Johnny Andrews who suggested "From Aerosmith to ZZ Top - how a late-career revival can have a detrimental effect on a rich back catalogue of gems and the overall public perception of the band - both from musos and normal people". There was support for this idea from others - so go to it.

There you go seven guest blogs (if everyone fronts up and delivers).

You have one week to write your post - I need it in my inbox by this time next week. Please email me: my name with a dot in the middle and then the at-xtra.co.nz bit.

You have one week.

Now for those that feel cheated by today's post and have read this far looking for a discussion point beyond the guest-blog selections (the judge's decision is final by the way) perhaps I can offer something.

First of all tonight I'm off to see Bikini Roulette and Lady Parts at Bodega. I am looking forward to this - I know nothing about the bands on the bill. That is why I am looking forward to it. It's good to take a punt.

So what gigs are you seeing this weekend, or playing? Feel free to pimp your gig in the space below. And when was the last time you took a punt on seeing some live music and it paid off?

And secondly - I think I've found my favourite-ever blog comment in all the time I've been writing Blog On The Tracks. It arrived on Wednesday in response to my track-by-track look at Jack White's Blunderbuss album:

Susan M   #30   02:29 am May 03 2012
Repeat this to my face, Simon. This 50-year-old mother of two would sit you down explain WHY Jack White is a freaking musical genius. Of course, what do you know, really? You probably decorate your house in feng shui, too. (BTW, I find your writing style derivative [stealing from Jon Stewart...really now] and simplistic, and your personality to be crass and generally spiteful.)

Now, a week or so ago I received death-threats (plural) for my review of KRS-One; a review that was positive about the artist but suggested that local hip-hop was derivative and embarrassing. People who told me to be more open-minded suggested that I should be dead for not liking a genre that was not a genre anyway, it was a culture I could never even dream of correctly understanding, yo.

Yeah, anyway, I'm more frightened by Susan M and her love of Jack White/hatred of me and my crass generally spiteful personality than I am of any of the people that told me to watch my back when walking around Wellington at night. So well done Susan M.

Music means so much to people - and by the end of next week I'll have a range of guest-bloggers' thoughts to share, so that you get a break from my opinion and have a chance to check out the attempts made by others in the quest to Right This Blog!

Have a great weekend.

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