New Zealand sounds like a bloody miserable place if their pop stars are anything to go by

New Zealand! Beaches! Vineyards! Hobbits! Bungee Jumping! Glaciers! Tectonic Plates! How could anyone living in a land of such plentiful beauty ever feel down in the dumps?

No-one knows but, heavens above, Kiwi pop stars are a miserable bunch.

Take, for example, this example.

Broods - Never Gonna Change

Broods (pictured above, staring into an abyss) are brother-sister duo Caleb and Georgia Nott. He is 21, she is 19. But instead of drinking barrels of party wine and living on a diet of biscuits, they're documenting the sort of suffocating, protracted break-up most of us don't experience until we're at least 27.

They sound like a barrel of laughs, don't they?

The band are curently touring the UK with Haim, and have been in cahoots with songwriter Joel Little. He's the guiding hand behind fellow Kiwi miseryguts Lorde who, coincidentally, also premiered a new track today.

The Brit Award-winner has added her spooky vocal stylings to Easy, a stormy electro track by New York's Son Lux. The result is eerie and beautiful, but it's no Into The Groove, is it?



And let's not forget fun-merchants The Naked And Famous, whose most recent single is a heartwrenching song about the death of singer Alisa Xayalith's mother ("Why couldn't we save you?" she pleads).

Naturally, the video is set at a funeral.

The Naked And Famous - I Kill Giants

Intense.

Maybe a little too intense. So let's deploy the Flight Of The Conchords, New Zealand's first defence against glum.


There we go. All better now.

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The Oscars: A bit of a blur

There's nothing like the annual Oscars all-nighter to make your head spin. There's tons of amazing coverage over on the BBC, which I barely remember being part of, but it was great fun being in the thick of it at four in the morning.

You'll know all the headlines by now, but I just wanted to record for posterity Bret "Flight Of The Conchords" McKenzie, who gave the best red carpet photo of all time:

Bret also deserves congratulations for winning the Oscar for best original song, having written this masterpiece (don't watch it if you haven't seen the film - it's full of spoilers).

Jason Segel, Walter - Man Or Muppet


Oh, and further "mad props" to the photoshop genius who touched up this red carpet image of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

I'm going to bed now. G'night.

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Bret McKenzie talks Muppets, Hobbits and Flight Of The Conchords

I was lucky enough to interview Bret McKenzie from Flight Of The Conchords earlier this week. He was just on his way to tape the Conan O'Brien show, where he was promoting the new Muppets film, on which he was musical director. One of his songs, the Harry Nilsson-inspired Man Or Muppet, is even up for an Oscar later this month (and it had better win, or else...)

The main interview went up on the BBC News pages today, but here's the extended cut.

Hello Bret. How are you?
Hello mate. I’m great. How’s it going?

Great thanks... But I’m not the one up for an Oscar! How does that feel?
I’m really proud of it.

And there’s only one other nominee...
I know! The chances of winning could not be any better, unless they had one nominee. But I guess that would make the awards ceremony very predictable.

The weird thing is that the other song is from Rio, which Jemaine [Clement, co-star of Flight Of The Conchords] stars in.
It’s quite funny isn’t it? Luckily, he’s not nominated for the song he did in that movie. It would have been pretty hilarious if it was just the two of us, sitting at the Oscars, competing against each other. There’d have been fisticuffs.

So, what are the particular qualities that makes a song Muppety?
They’ve gotta be slightly... They’ve got to have a looseness. Jim Henson said “if the music’s too good, it’s not right” and so I took that to heart, and kept the songs slightly shambolic.

How do you achieve that with an orchestra, who are used to getting everything note perfect?
Ah, well the orchestra are perfect. They don’t really make mistakes, those guys. Luckily, the Muppets themselves have very imperfect voices – so the vocals always have a quality of infallibility.

Piggy can’t sing very high or very low, otherwise she loses the sound of Miss Piggy. It’s kind of like Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips. You know how when he hits the high notes he doesn’t quite make them? That’s what makes it sound so emotional and so great.

Bret McKenzie and Kermit The Frog - Life's A Happy Song

Jason Segel doesn’t have those problems – he puts in an incredible performance in Man or Muppet.
He did a pretty good job of the high note, didn't he? I was really thrilled when he came into the studio and knocked that one out. He’s a really good singer. I had no idea – I mean, he sings in Forgetting Sarah Marshall but I didn’t know what to expect. He’s a triple threat – he can sing, he can act and he can sort of dance.

Would you say you’re a quadruple threat, because you can do all those things AND write the songs?
Yup, that’s where I’ve got him. I’ve got him cornered.

The Footloose dance in the first series of Flight Of The Conchords is one of my favourite scenes.
I’m pretty big on dancing. My mum was a ballet teacher. I think she wanted a daughter but she had three sons, so she made us all do ballet.

It's a great skill to have. It gives you good balance.
[Laughs] I’ve got really good balance. I don’t know if you’d noticed that - but often in a room when some people are falling over, I’m still standing.

You joke, but you’re living on the San Andreas fault now. It could come in handy.
Ha! I guess you’re right.

Anyway, back to The Muppets. When you watched the original show as a child, was there a member of Dr Teeth’s band you wanted to be?
I started off as a drummer so I was always a big fan of Animal. He’s just so wild.

So were you disappointed when Dave Grohl got the cameo?
I didn’t get the chance! I should have done a cameo, but it didn’t really work out. I was around for pre-production and post-production. I wasn’t really there for most of the filming.

What state was the film in when you joined? Were the songs written to a pre-existing script?
That’s right.

Does that make it more difficult for you as a composer?
Sometimes the biggest challenge was convincing Disney because they weren’t that familiar with Conchords. They weren’t sure what sort of movie they were going to make at first, whether it was going to be more of a ‘Hannah Montana meets the Muppets’. But James Bobin and Jason and I were all very committed to making it a very traditional Muppet movie.

I told someone you’d written the lyrics and she said, “is it full of dirty jokes?”
That was one of the restrictions – there could be no dirty gags. I was shut down on a “motherfrogger” joke that I had in there early on. And also I had one gag where a Muppet was reminiscing, “I remember when I was a piece of felt” and that got taken out, because the Muppets are real.

So they never break the illusion?
Yeah, they maintain the integrity of the world. They were pretty much “method Muppets” in the studio. They would refuse to sing lines I had written because it didn’t match the integrity of the character.

How did that feel as the writer?
It was a bit of a stress. There were maybe half-a-dozen versions of each song. Lots of to-ing and fro-ing and lots of edits. And then edits in the picture would need the songs to be re-worked. Often the songs were cut shorter to keep the film moving. That was frustrating for us – you spend so much time in the studio and then the song ends up only 60 seconds long. But James knows what he’s doing and the film has a really good pace.

Like the Chris Cooper rap. That ended up being a very short mini song, but in a way that was much funnier than a long version.

Is it true you taught him to rap over Skype?
You read that? That was a total highlight – teaching an Academy Award-winning dramatic actor how to rap on Skype. He’s a very serious man, and it was an awesomely awkward rap session. The Rhymenocerous was teaching Chris Cooper how to rap. But he really got into it. Later, on the set, he was apparently reading a book on how to rap. I don't know who wrote that. Did Snoop write that? Or maybe Jay-Z's written a book: 'The Dummy's Guide To Rapping?' It's hilarious

So what was your first lesson in rapping?
I was exploring attitude, because he’s a bad guy in the movie. So I wanted to see how nasty he could sound, how scary he could be.

I have to ask: Are you a man or are you a muppet?
I’m a muppet. It’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves.

Where did the idea for that song come from?
The line “man or Muppet” was in the script because they knew they wanted a song along those lines. So that was the title, and I was free to do anything I wanted with that. It’s that thing of writing songs for musicals, which I guess I’m working on more, is that it has to relate to the story. That’s a song where the story and the music lock in.

That always felt like the big difference between the two series of Conchords. In the first one, the script revolved around songs you’d already written – but in the second one, the songs were more in service to the plot.
Yes. Which one did you prefer?

I liked them both in different ways. I have both albums and I probably listen to the first one more... But I enjoyed watching the second series more as a comedy. It felt more complete.
Yeah, yeah. In the first series, the songs were written for comedy clubs so they were much funnier, they’re full of jokes. Whereas the second series, the jokes were often more visual or story-based, so they’re not such a good comedy club listen. We found that, touring the second season songs, they’re not so full of laughs. The first season, we played those for years, they’re built to keep a room laughing.

And presumably the songs for the second series were written under much bigger time constraints.
Yeah, we were writing the weekend before we filmed.

How do you feel about the difference between them now?
I like them all and they’re definitely different. The second ones are less satisfying to play live and I think that’s because they didn’t get road tested. If we’d had a bit more time, we probably could have filled them out.

Flight Of The Conchords - Sugar Lumps

So, has the success of The Muppets got the ball rolling for a Flight Of The Conchords movie?
What’s good is now we’ve all had more experience in doing films, so we’re in a better place to do a Conchords film.

And have you made any inroads?
It’s all very conceptual, so no we haven’t made any definite plans. But it’s something we all want to do, so it’s just a matter of time. Jemaine’s been working on Men In Black, so it’s been a kind of funny year. We’ve been living in different cities. He’s been working with aliens, and I’ve been working with frogs and pigs.

Is it strange to spend time apart? You pretty much worked on the TV series seven days a week for a couple of years.
Yes, we were basically living together. So we’re taking a well-earned break. When we started it was good because we would spend half a year doing Conchords then do other projects. We found it was quite productive and creatively inspirational, because you’d spend time apart and then you’d come together and you’d have different experiences. What happened on Conchords is we were spending so much time together that we knew all of each other’s stories, and we were meeting all the same people so we were running out of material. Very much like an old married couple, bored of each other’s stories.

The Muppets - Official Trailer

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The Muppets: All aboard a Conchord

Frustratingly for those of us in the UK, Disney are holding back the new Muppet Movie until February next year. In the States, however, its hitting cinemas on Christmas Day and the reviews, which started coming out over the weekend, have been overwhelmingly positive.

The film's directed by James Bobin, who put together cult musical sitcom Flight Of The Conchords for HBO, and he's roped in ex-Conchord Bret McKenzie to write the film's original songs. The opening number is Life's A Happy Song, and here's Kermit doing an acoustic performance with McKenzie for the New York Times.

Kermit and Bret McKenzie - Life's A Happy Song


If that's got you excited for the film, it's only 79 days to go before we get to see the real thing :(

The Muppet Movie - Trailer

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Rihanna does a video, people notice

As everyone on the entire internet has pointed out, Rihanna is riding a zebra in her new video.



I'm a bit miffed that it's a stuffed zebra. Where's the fun and danger in that? Mind you, given that the video is an horrific assault assault on the eyes, it's probably for the best that any real animals were kept away from the set.

Rihanna - Rude Boy


While it's nice to see Rihanna nod to the calypso and soca music of her native Barbados, I can't take the song seriously when the bridge so obviously steals the lyrical conceit of the following song:

Flight Of The Conchords - She's So Hot (Boom)

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Conchords ground their flights

Sad news - Flight Of The Conchords have decided not to make a third (or fourth, or fifth, or sixth) series of their HBO musicomedy series.

A statement posted on the band's official website said: "We’ve noticed the less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing that we won’t be returning for a 3rd season.

"We’re very proud of the two seasons we made and we like the way the show ended. We’d like to thank everyone who helped make the show and also everyone who watched it.

"While the characters Bret and Jemaine will no longer be around, the real Bret and Jemaine will continue to exist."

In a way, we're happy. The second series wasn't as quotable, or as likely to reduce us to fits of tittery giggles, as the first. But even when they weren't firing on all cylinders, Flight Of The Conchords managed to rescue the comedy song genre from the likes of Katy "stating the obvious" Brand, Chris "tedious wordplay" Moyles and Peter "these aren't jokes, they're stories I heard down the pub" Kay. Long may their influence last.

Flight Of the Conchords - In Love With A Sexy Lady

Flight Of The Conchords - Business Time


Flight Of The Conchords - Jenny

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Best red carpet ever*

It's the Flight Of The Conchords crew at the Emmys. Hooray!



* Apart from the time Brangelina blanked Ryan Seacrest, who was running after them windmill-style, shouting "Brad! Angelina! Brad! Angelina! Brad!" like a broken Hollywood alarm clock.

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A mixed bag of internet goodies

It's like a 10p mix for your PC.

:: Jordin Sparks' new single is officially "a bit of a belter". It's from the pen of Ryan Tedder, him of Bleeding Love and Halo (halo, halo, halo, HALO) fame. In an unlikely tribute to Pat Benatar, it has been called Battlefield. The MP3 is over here.

:: Terrible online waste of time pt 1: Play Scrabble against yourself, against the clock. The very definition of "okay, maybe just one more turn"... Go to Deepleap.org.

:: Overlooked synth-pop genii Dragonette have put a free MP3 of their new single on Myspace. The chorus is astounding, the rest is a bit of a mess.

:: There is a certain degree of pant-wetting about the new Sophie Ellis Bextor / Freemasons single from the sort of people who like Sophie Ellis Bextor and the Freemasons. I'm guessing a low top 10 chart placing when it comes out on 15th June.



:: Watch Little Boots play Stuck On Repeat for an embarassing uncle who's desperate to prove he's trendy, and his wife, who believes she is "in touch" with "the kids" because she's heard of Tetris. Cringeworthy.

:: Terrible online waste of time pt 2: Broken Picture Telephone. It's like Chinese whispers, on the internet, with pictures. In this game, for example, the phrase "Everyone gets punched in the face at the same time" became "an upset robot trapped on the train tracks breaks free", via a circuitous route involving the following picture:




:: Cat plays peek-a-boo.




:: Robert Downey Jr is back in his big red romper suit on the set of Iron Man 2...

:: Are these the Top 10 hidden album tracks of all time?? (Personally, I'd have put Janet Jackson's Strong Enough from The Velvet Rope in there, but what does my opinion count for??)

:: Have a quick peek at Where It's At - an online map that shows you famous locations from pop culture, from the real Hotel California to the parking lot that inspired Big Yellow Taxi. Needs a bit of work to add locations outside the US (Abbey Road isn't even on there!).

:: Rejoice! Flight Of The Conchords is back for its second series - starting on BBC Four tonight at 10:30pm. Set your Sky+ thing, cause it won't be on iPlayer.

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Flight Of The Conchords trailer round-up

The second series of award-winning musicomedy Flight Of The Conchords has just started over in the USA.

Here in Britain, however, we have to wait til April to witness the genius that's three months, for crying out loud!!!

In the meantime, here are all the promo slots and trailers for the second series to tide us over.

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Ladies' chart battle - and more!

Sorry the blog's been a bit underpopulated for the last couple of days - I've been poorly sick. But here's a few things you might have missed (or seen elsewhere while I was away, natch).



:: Is this the biggest battle of the pop divas in the history of the cosmos?

Big guns Britney, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera and Alesha Dixon (and Leona Lewis) all have singles out this week, while Girls Aloud have squeezed out their fifth studio album. Chart-wise, it looks like X Factor's not-quite-as-awful-as-you'd-expect version of Hero will be number one again, with Girls Aloud's The Promise at two and Beyonce's gramatically-incorrect If I Were A Boy at three. Meanwhile, Out Of Control looks set to beat Razorlight to the top of the album charts, giving Girls Aloud their first ever non-compilation number one. Amazing. [More on the midweeks at Music Week]

:: Jamelia has a comeback single, Break It Down, Tear It Up. It's miles better than the confused mess of her last album - but is it good enough to put her back where she belongs (somewhere between The Saturdays and McFly on the bill for T4 on the Beach)? The jury is out. [listen / download]

:: Another track from the Killer's new album, Day & Night, has leaked. No surprises here: Too many synths, Brandon Flowers not very good at singing, the track itself = brilliant.

The Killers - Spaceman


:: It's like a blogger's wet dream - M.I.A. covers the theme tune to The Wire. Sadly, it's rubbish. [Youtube (youtube)]

:: Is this a new Justin Timberlake single? Hmmm... it sounds a bit like a FutureSex/LoveSounds cast-off to me.

:: The NME has published its annual "cool list" - with entries for Jay-Z, Liam Gallagher, Amy Winehouse and, er, Peter Gabriel. The number one slot, as is customary, goes to someone the NME is trying to justify having put on their front page in April, despite the fact they've made absolutely no impact on anyone, anywhere in the intervening six months. This year, it's Alice Glass from Crystal Castles (they're like the Human League with all the tunes taken out). As Stereogum points out, the NME have once again confused "cool" with "notorious". [Stereogum]

:: A Kiss Is Not A Contract - but a baby is a life sentence (in a good way, obviously). Flight Of The Conchords star Jemaine Clement is a dad. Congratulations. [3 News, New Zealand]

:: Lukewarm S Club 7 reunion is lukewarm. [Popjustice]

:: Oh yes, and there was a completely historic, paradigm-shifting, momentous election in the US. Barack Obama is President elect (Yay!!!) and Will.i.am has written a song about it (woop!). And so has Nas (respect) and so has Seal (er, hooray?!)

Back to business as usual from tomorrow...

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Rejoice!

Here is some good news: Flight Of The Conchords, the New Zealand comedic musical duo, who are not as bad as that description makes them sound, are releasing an album!

Featuring fifteen completely re-recorded songs from their HBO telvision series (literally the best thing on television all last year), it comes out on 22nd April.

You can pre-order on Amazon, and the tracklisting is as follows:
Foux du Fafa
Inner City Pressure
Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros
Think About It
Ladies of the World
Mutha'uckas
The Prince of Parties
Leggy Blonde
Robots
Boom
A Kiss Is Not a Contract
The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)
Business Time
Bowie
Au Revoir

Bad news: It's missing the sublime Jenny.
Good news: Jenny is all up on that youtube (youtube) thusly:

Flight Of The Conchords - Jenny (live)


PS Subpop records is giving away a free download of Ladies Of The World on their media pages. When will the governments realize it's got to be funky sexy ladies?

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Happy Flippin' Christmas

Dearest reader,

I am going away for Christmas now. At least part of it will be spent in prison*.

Normal service will be resumed next weekend, when I'll run-down the annual totally unbiased Discopop Directory Top 10 albums or singles of 2007 (I haven't decided which to do first).

In the meantime, here's a seasonally inappropriate clip from my favourite comedy discovery of the year, BBC Four's musical spoof show Flight Of The Conchords. In this scene, guitarist Brett is angry at being replaced in his band by a flash-in-the-pan bongos player, and works out his anger in the style of a 1980s Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

Happy Christmas to you and yours!
Mrdiscopop

Brett's angry dance


PS: If you liked that, there's a DVD available here, and the band plan an album and tour in 2008. Yay!

*Not a joke: My mother-in-law is a prison chaplain, and we'll be "on the inside" for the Christmas Day service

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