I like to think I can assist with some things relating to music. It’s not just about me writing my own version of a Bowie song. This blog does, sometimes, want to help…

So, with Christmas very near I thought I’d run through a few of the latest music DVDs I have watched. In some cases I have been forced to check them out – other times I have been fortunate enough to catch them.

As with previous posts covering a range of music DVDs and as is almost always the case with this medium, it’s a mixed bag. But here are a few that just might be a good gift. And – as is always the worry at this time of the year – you just might find yourself wanting to buy something here for yourself when you should be thinking of others.

Last Sunday I went to the Alicia Keys concert. It was okay. Keys is a pretty good singer and a fairly decent musician. She had great backing vocalists and a super-good band. And there were moments (her cover of Prince’s How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?) where the gig was stunning. Unfortunately Keys’ image has been watered down and manufactured with time. The cornrows are gone and there’s a lighter shade and a wave through her hair - and like Tyra Banks and Beyonce before her, the skin has been bleached, whitened to not frighten off part of the American audience.Opening for Keys was Jordin Sparks; a former plus-sized model (it’s frightening to think that she is considered plus-sized; she looks like any normal female that drinks pints and eats roasts) who went on to win the sixth season of American Idol; the most successful – and coincidentally the worst – television show in history.

Fans of gig-posters and rock-art are in for a treat – specifically Wellington-based folk. Hadley Donaldson, aka Autistk, has the opening of his show at Rex Royale today. The exhibition (and you’ll see the flyer there) runs into January and will showcase some of Donaldson’s fine work. Limited edition signed and numbered prints are available to buy.

Now, I don’t know Hadley, but I know his work. I see his flyers and posters around town – and on the walls of the San Francisco Bath House when attending gigs. I have a copy of the poster he did for Kristin Hersh’s solo gig last year on the wall of my lounge; block-mounted and looking good.

Madman NZ very kindly supplied me with a copy of the Patti Smith documentary film by Steven Sebring to offer as a giveaway on this blog.

And a copy to review – which we will get to by way of a post about Smith – I am pleased about this because Patti Smith: Dream Of Life was on at this year’s film festival, but I find the staff at the film festival to be total prats.

One year I reviewed the thoroughly awful Kurt Cobain documentary and was told in an email by some needle-nose from their offices that “I didn’t get it”. They seem to only want positive reviews. I don’t play that game. And yet, thanks to the popularity of the music-documentary-as-feature-film, the annual festival is a great chance to see some top docos. This year I took a stand, I seldom do, and I boycotted the Wellington Film Festival.

So, on Saturday afternoon we drove over the hill to Martinborough, for the John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow gig (A Day on the Green). It was a fine show; both Crow and Mellencamp played their back catalogues and had great backing bands. You can read the full review here.

My wife wasn’t super-interested in the show, but happy to come along for the ride, so to speak.

This post that you are reading now is the 300th in the life of Blog on the Tracks. I mention that because I wrote a post called Century when this blog had 100 posts in the ground to support it. The fence rolled on, announcing 200 – then there was the actual birthday of this blog in September. And now 300 posts – this being the 300th.

I mention these mini-milestones as we get to them because a) they are important and b) I am enough of a nerd to keep count, so if I am doing that I might as well announce the count in some way; put it to some use.

Kane is my brother. And today is his birthday. So by way of a very cheap present – since he does not live in the same country as me – I thought I’d dedicate this post to him. (Hey, if I could announce my own birthday, this is no biggie right?) But don’t worry, as you have come to expect, it’s about music…

I figure there’s no better time to thank my brother than now – here, with this post – for the influence he has had on me with regard to music. Being the older brother, he introduced me to a lot of music; so much of it stays with me to this day.

Last week I touched on it with this post about the Rolling Stones; Kane bought Rolled Gold and it became the soundtrack to our South Island family road trip. And a while back I referenced the “introduction” to music that would occur when Kane had a new CD and I, the younger brother, was invited in to listen to it. Cast your eye back to this look at the music of The Who for that story…but, if you can’t be bothered clicking there the thing is that was not an isolated event…the “introduction” occurred when new music made its way in to our house; I must have been a beyond-eager student, always keen and ready to learn.

I have Samuel to thank for his comment the other day on the post where you can win a signed Duffy LP and deluxe-edition version of the CD (you can still enter by the way; just name your album of the year).

He mentioned Midnight Boom, an album that never made it in to my letterbox for review, nor in to my shopping cart on a regular buying-spree. And I had been a bit of a fan of The Kills. So I thank him for the reminder, I had actually forgotten entirely about the band and their third, and easily best, album. Fortunately a friend came to the party swiftly, loaning me a copy so I could hear it, which in turn took me back to the two earlier albums.

Let’s ignore that I ever wrote this post. Let’s ignore that there was ever an issue about Robert Plant and his erstwhile band mates. Let’s think back to around this time last year…and sign your name at the end of this with a comment if you are keen to see Led Zeppelin (the three originals and the son of the drummer) dock down in NZ for a show.

Reading Jane Yee’s blog yesterday, about conversations in bars that you might not want to be having, made me think back and recall this one:

I was playing a gig in Feilding. Nothing wrong with that, though nothing great about it either. When a woman, a regular whenever we used to play, came over for a chat. She seemed to know most of the band – and at that point – apparently, she decided she knew me (I’d never talked to her before).