Wooo hooooo.....

I'd spent the whole of the previous night, overdubbing over this track that we (collectively and in alphabetical order, AB, Andy, Weiyuan and me) recorded at NTU, Communication Studies studios. It was due to Billy's help that we have gotten the opportunity to record the track. However, due to all of us, including the Communication Studies students (a few of them being friends as well. Thanks guys!!!) being recording virgins, the session dragged far longer than we expected. We had to pack it in by 1 am. All we had from that session was a truly great experience and an incomplete (to us, at least) track that had been bugging me since then. In a way, I think we learned that despite our lack of technical knowledge of the recording process and more importantly, musical technicality of our instruments, we should always hold the reins in how we want our music to be presented.

Finally I got my ass down to recording overdubs on my PC last night. What initally sounded like a jangly pop, REM-esque track (to me, at least) has now a fuzzed-out, thrashy chorus in the vein of Suede. Yeah, that still remains an inspiration to us (at least, me, Weiyuan and Yeeyong), especially the Bernard Butler era. Butler was the former guitarist for Suede and many purists like me would still consider him to be still the best guitarist that went through the band so far. Clearly, he still rawks my world... Well, so far, I'm waiting for Yeeyong to do his overdubs as well to hopefully take the track to another level. He wasn't there with us at NTU that time as he was still studying in Melbourne. Well, at least now, he'd play on the track and that'd be great. All my bitches on the track. Heheheh....

But to be honest, I feel that the track is pretty alright, not fantastic and definitely not single-material. However, it holds special meaning for me. It was the track that brought all 5 of us back together and definitely, I hope we can let more people hear it as well. Once Yeeyong lays his tracks down, we'd mix it to the best of our ability and this fucked-up PC's capability. Hopefully, we can throw it out on some future EP or LP as a filler or if not, you can always ask me for a copy. Anyhow, we are trying to start on some other tunes which is not exactly in the same vein as the forementioned song.

By the way, the title of the track is "Crayons".

The Life of A Hippie...

Recently, I've been waking up at 3 pm in the afternoon. Yes, sue me, all ye office workers.... but seriously, I'm feeling it's beginning to be detrimental to something in my life... but somehow I cannot put my finger on it. Guess I'm still groggy... Hmmm... my short term memory loss is getting worse....

In all case, Yeeyong is getting married (just registering the marriage) to his lovely girlfriend, Fiona which happens to be my primary school classmate. Mind-boggling isn't it? Here's wishing them all the best in this crazy world of ours. Good luck kids!!!

The Punisher trailer is out

Yup, starring Thomas Jane as Frank Castle aka the Punisher (damn... I still prefer Dolph Lundgren ...) and John Travolta as the baddie. Got a bad feeling: this is gonna suck biiiiggggg time....

Click here for the trailer.

ARGGHHHH ..... WILLY SMASHHHH....

Pardon the outburst in feral rage. Me just watched The Hulk abt 2 hrs ago. It's pretty good. For a comic book adaptation, it's pretty on par with X2, retaining much of the original spirit, though not the entire origin of the character. Well, the thing that bugged me the most was the purple pants. Though I know it kept in touch with the original character design, the purple (actually, it looked more lavender to me) pants looked too fake to me. Hahaha, and you'd thought I'd complain about the monster instead. I though ILM did a pretty decent job on the monster itself, having the CGI-ed character emoting clearly across many scenes. But who cares, it's a family drama after all. I mean, you didn't know?!?! That's an Ang Lee speciality.

Oh well, I gotta run. I just burst my pants and popped my shirt. Gotta find a new set to replace.

SWS blog just updated

Yes, membersss... I've just updated the Spooning With Satan blog with the revamped biography. Check it out if you wanna know more.

One of the weirdest stories I've ever read...

Actually, it's a movie review I've read in Film Threat. However, the documentary is plain weird and freakish. Apparently, it's about people who think that limbs on their bodies don't really belong quite there and take great pains (excuse the intentional pun) to find means to amputate it off their bodies. Yeah, I know... freakish ....

3 more days ....

Yes, memberssss....

3 more days to the Hulk...

and I can't wait....

Innocent Question Of The Day #1

Welcome to the 1st edition of this blog's Innocent Question Of The Day. This is something I just thought up of while taking the bus down east in the evening. The east is really not for me; while I admit I like the rustic charms of Kallang but like what Jim Morrison has said, The West is the best. Anyway, that's not important here....

Have you have wondered why do TCS always groom the winner of the Miss Universe-Singapore to be a star/singer/actress? Made me wonder why while I was watching a clip of the pageant on the bus. My point being: "The winner is obviously over the moon at winning. What about the runner-ups? They have to hug and kiss the winner to congratulate her, being happy at her winning. When the runner-ups are being interviewed, they'd go 'I'm so happy for her. She really deserves to win and she really did well in the (insert segment of choice: swimsuit, Q&A, etc)' But c'monnnnn, most likely in their minds, 'Crap, that bitch won?!?! She won !?!?? Yeah, she slayed me in the Q&A session but damn, I'd look good with that crown on!!!! And I still have to hug and congratulate her!?!?' "

Makes you wonder why TCS never groom the real actresses .... Hmmmmm ....

Tsunami of inspiration

Recently, I've been hit by a tidal wave of inspiration just to play my beloved (91% mine; 9% Alvin's) Les Paul *Mine's the ebony one; though it would have been cool to get the Alpine White version (Billy, you should know why. Hehehe...)* I'm thinking now that I've so much spare time to play. I really better get my playing chops in shape cuz the last time I had so much time (10 friggin' months, to be exact) I just laid in bed and lazed arounnd, practising jackshit.

We all know work sucks big time but then again, I'm currently back to being a bum again. Hopefully, this time, it'd be shorter than the last time, much shorter....

So that the situation would be better for me to get me some more new toys like the Line 6 DL 4, the Theremin (apparently, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin played it; however, I'm more inspired by Portishead in this area) and lastly, the Korg Kaos Pad (which is actually a DJ tool but generates incredibly weird sounds. Who's to say that I can't link it up to my guitar signal chain? But.... Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead had already done it... Crap... Just becuz he was born exactly 7 years ahead of me, he had the bloody headstart in accumulating gear ...)

Me, the Godfather....

No lah... Not the type like Don Corleone from the Coppola series. I'm talking about the offer that I made in the How The West Was Won article below about me being the Godfather to your future kids.

I felt obliged to give you people some prior warning. What a soiled diaper is to me is what Krytonite is to Superman. So I'm no good at diaper changing.

Alright, just wanted to share that bit of info. Other than that, I make an excellent Godfather for your future kids.

Hail To The Thief

Honestly, I didn't have much expectations of the new album as I've downloaded the bulk of the new songs which Radiohead played live in Spain last August. I had it all figured to be Radiohead's weakest album ever.

The songs sounded way too similiar and draggy in the live bootleg. However, the only exception was the lead single "There There" which I thought was a continuation of Kid A's "Optimistic" with the tribal-sounding drums and shards of chords crashing all over. Lyrically, it's still all Thom Yorke up to his old pet topic with his mournful refrain at the outro of the song: "We are just accidents/ Waiting to happen".

The neurosis and paranoia of The Bends and OK Computer born out of urban living had given way to new muses on songs like "Knives Out" on 2001's Amnesiac. Fear of flying and phobias of stuck in lifts and getting into accidents have warped into Yorke 's new pet topic of cannabalism which he further explores in this new offering in the dirgey piano ballad "We Suck Young Blood". The band actually featured handclaps in the song itself. When was the last time I've actually heard handclaps used as a production trick in a Radiohead song? Hmmmm .... never....

So, it seems that Thom Yorke has redressed the gap between his muses lyrically. Moreover, that does not end just there. Musically, the band seems to have merged their love for pioneering electronic bands like Can and Kraftwerk with their spiraling and wiry guitars more successfully this time round. Sounding far more cohesive than what they have done on both Kid A and Amnesiac, it would be hard to imagine a future Radiohead album without the union of electronic bleeps and drone laying alongside guitars. Carrying on in the vein of such a trend would be the standout track, "A Punchout At The Wedding" with the casading piano propped by the "Idioteque"-like scatterbeats.

Another track which caught my attention was the closing track, "A Wolf At The Door". Thom Yorke had hardly ever gone into a stream-of-consciousness ranting style in any Radiohead songs; ranting, yes but with so many words that crammed into a single bar is definitely new. As all fans would know, Yorke often stretches the melody for most of Radiohead songs over a single word or syllable, just to let the tune breathe and hammer itself into the listener's consciousness.

In my opinion, this latest offering has swung the band back on track after the mishap of the previous album with very few dry moments to spare. 9/10

Evangelion

Turns out a production company in Hollywood had bought the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion to make a live-action movie outta it. That's right, live-action but with tons of CGI lah. Anyway, for those who actually couldn't stand the mumbo-jumbo, metaphorical speak in The Matrix: Reloaded, bear in mind, that summer flick has nothing on Neon Genesis Evangelion. Trust me. The anime was so wanky that I had to release it somewhere. Okay, so that wasn't as funny as I've rehearsed it in my mind. In any case, I'm very partial in seeing 20-stories-tall robots maiming each other since I was a little boy. So definitely, Neon Genesis Evangelion rocks...

Click here to check out some of the pre-production sketches.

How The West Was Won

I've just gotten the new Led Zeppelin's 3 CD live package, "How The West Was Won". Now, I'm currently listening to the 25 minutes version of Dazed And Confused. It's definitely wanky but that's how I like it. Heheheh....

Despite of what some of you might know of my working environment, it's been a reasonably good day. I've practised retail therapy and got the Led Zep set in the evening. But I guess it's how you start the day which can be quite important. I woke up and was ready to leave for work. Then Russell, the 2 year old toddler whom my mom babysits was sitting at the sofa, being his usual self trying to dismantle his toys and the jigsaw puzzles that were emsembled for him. I said hi to him and carried on wearing my shoes. He just dropped everything and walked over to my side.... stretched open his small arms and gave me a hug. Then he turned around and walked back to his dismantling. That was really nice....

Of course, Derrick and Graham were saying that my paternal instinct were kicking in. Hahaha, so if you guys out there ever need a godfather for your kids, I'm volunteering with 2 hands up.

Alright, memberssss...

I'm supposed to say something of great importance but it had slipped my mind as you all know, smokers all have short term memory losses. So basically, I have nothing important to say. Well, except for the fact that I'd just watched Smallville an hour ago, there was a defining moment of Kristin Kreuk's beauty that I hadta put up a link to some of her pictures. Not nude ones lah.... Get that filthy thought outta your mind!! Though I dun mind seeing more of that ass.... hmmm ...

Speaking of which ....

Her Ass Is Righteous aka HAIR
Here's another look at HAIR. (Yes, members, you can all start practising your theory and measurements on what a great rump doth maketh)
Yup, but let's not be so mean to only focus just on her physical assets and forget about this and that.

But in all seriousness, folks, her greatest asset still remains this . Awwwww......

What is the meaning of 'membersss'?

According to Alvin, in the 70's, Indians in our fair land used to think of each other Indian as if they were part of a community, part of an organisation. Therefore, everyone within their social circle would be referred as a 'member' as a term of affection. Remember back in the 70's, there were still a lotta drunk Indians.

We just added the 'sssss' to make it more funny. So that's it, kids, the definition of 'memberssss...'