Samwell - What What (In The Butt)

Billy and I started a 'Straight Guys Who Love Music By Gay Guys' Facebook group yesterday. Natalie added the above video. The singer's facial expression and lyrics are so damn disturbing that they are fucken good!!!

Love love!

Was out with Ah Jun, Ah Boon and Ah Bui last night drinking at Indochine Club St. It was nice to catch up with them since I've not seen them for a while. Bracey Gracie was there as well along with Ah Boon's "bu" (Hokkien: woman), Eleen.

Need to take note that I'm not getting any younger and drinking on an empty stomach. 3 pints, to be exact.

It's nice to see Ah Bui getting much love these days. And watching the sexual tension unfold between Ah Jun and Ah Boon was pretty funny and reminds me how they need to get a room. Well, like the latest catchphrase they came up with: "Love love!" - must be said as chirpily as possible. The air's filled with it...

Love love!

Nice... part 2

Nutella Natalie just sent me this. More brewtal than death metal!!!

Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address

Akan datang. Yeah, I might be biased but this is gonna be the best album of the year for me. Okay, maybe with the exception of Rihanna, Wilco and Radiohead (but we'll see...).

Futon - Strap It On

The song is great. And there are like 2 more good ones on their latest album Pain Killer. That's about it. Ah well...

In Rainbows

Not in the best of moods these days. This week's gotten off at a bad start, really.

Billy sent me this. This piece of news will cheer me up. A new Radiohead album is always something to look forward. OK Computer still ranks as my favourite album along with Suede's DogManStar. The ever-forward-thinking band is releasing its album in only 2 formats: a discbox (which includes 2 or 3 CDs, 2 vinyls, digital downloads and some other good stuff) for a whopping 40 pounds or just downloads (as a pay-as-you-like format). Get the new album In Rainbows here. The downloads start 10 October.

For a whiny vegan, Thom, you still rock my world! \m/ -_- \m/

Oh My God...

Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson released his own solo album Version which is essentially an album of covers earlier this year. He got Lily Allen (have I mentioned how much I love her?) to sing on his version of Kaiser Chiefs' 'Oh My God'.

Sujin passed me his extra copy of Kaiser Chiefs' Employment about 2 years ago but their breakthrough single 'Everyday I Love You Less And Less' was irritating the shit outta me (and him as well). 'Oh My God' is really pretty good with the whole big guitars and chorus going on, sounding really rockin'. But I prefer Mark Ronson and Lily Allen's version more. Heh.

Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God



Mark Ronson - Oh My God (featuring Lily Allen)



The Kaiser Chiefs guys are in the video too.

Entroducing... Amon Tobin

This is one of my all-time favourite albums Entroducing by DJ Shadow. The choices of samples he used for this album is electrifying eclectic. Check the list out.

DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World



Apparently, it utilizes a sample of Tears For Fears's 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love'. Can't seem to spot it though. Love the video. It sports the same aesthetics as the song: cut-and-sampled.

Recently, I've been going through my Amon Tobin mp3 collection. Great stuff. I think Jason Ong aka J-O passed me his copy of Supermodified a few years back. Love it man. Great shit.

Amon Tobin - 4 Ton Mantis



I love this tune and how it switches rail mid-way and how "dark" it is.

Heima

Got this from Linda. Apparently, Sigur Ros has shot a short film. Iceland looks beautiful. Really beautiful.

Band for sale...

Got this off Linda's blog. Sounds familiar to me. Heh.

Backside itchy...

Just gotten the new M83 album Digital Shades [Vol. 1] on Monday. Thought I would not have like it so much but it's really pretty good. The trademark cheesy keyboards and the synth swells without any electronic beats and vocodered vocals. There are only 2 outta 10 tracks with vocals at all. It kinda reminded me of my friends from Aspidistra Fly but synth based.

I felt really inspired and thought that I'd love to do something like this. So I called up Weiyuan up and mentioned in recording some material like that. Hopefully, we get even one bloody tune done before the interest level dries up...

Blaqk Audio - Stiff Kittens

A side-project by the front-guys of American commercial pop-punk group AFI. Heard it in HMV on Monday with absolutely no referral. I thought it sounded very Nine Inch Nails with an ambient touch. The keyboards veer dangerously away from the entire New Wave thing to almost Beng techno at times. The whole pop-punk vocal stylings is not my thing but singer Davey Havok does his best impersonation of Dave Gahan.

Green is a slimming colour...

Roy started a Brigade Reconnaissance Company (my National Service vocation) Facebook group and posted this photo. Fuck, this was like almost 10 years ago! Gawd, we are OLD! It's great I still hang out with some of these bastards, drinking most of the time. I love these fuckers!

Nice... part 1

When I was taking the bus to work today, I saw a mother reading a children's fairytale book to her little girl at the bus-stop. I thought that was the sweetest thing I've seen for a long while.

I think it's pretty essential that a child reads. I think it could be different these days with some much distraction from the media: Cartoon Network (which is not evil), XBox-es, Playstations, etc. But it's a very different thing to sit down and read a book.

Hey, I'm sure it has shaped the moral values of our generation pretty much. I mean, we all learnt that the planet-invading-and-pop-star-loving Zentraedi are not necessarily evil by nature. How ghost-writing Singapore ghost stories with extremely bad grammar can be actually quite scary. And ghost-writing stories about 3 kids (or I believe, the demographic is now known as tweens) - a fat, brainy one, a dumb jock and a nerdy librarian who meddles and solves crimes can be extremely inspiring.

I love reading. Especially, on the bowl.

U2 - New Year's Day (live)

Was watching the concert DVD which Robin lent me: U2 Zoo TV Live in Sydney. Fucken amazing show which Bono went over the top as usual. But it was great. And they played 'New Year's Day', a very old song indeed from the War album. It's even older than some of you guys out there. *pinches Pamela's cheeks*

Tokyo Jihen - Osca

Joe sent me the link to the latest Tokyo Jihen video to me. Thanks!

Malaysia boleh!

Check out Noel's blog for the pictures of the women up north. They look so fine that you can go down south with any of them.

In any case, I've mentioned to Adlin when I was up in KL in March that I've noticed (most) Malaysian girls walk with a bounce in their asses. I rikes... A lot.

Leia's metal bikini

From Natalie. Check this out!

Daughtry

Meeting Adlin (who is in town for work) tonight at Dragonfly, St. James Powerstation to catch a special showcase by ex-American Idol contestant, Chris Daughtry.

If you know us both well enough, his insipid form of moozak is not exactly our kinda music. However, it's very strangely alluring in the sense that everything seems to follow a standard formula. Most American modern rock totes this line very well. Just look at Hoobastank, Creed, Nickelback (they are Canadian but it's the same. And the only worse thing than them is probably Celine Dion but I'm not going there.).

The 2 of us were listening to Daughtry's debut album in Adlin's car when I was up in KL in March. And we unlock the secret to American modern rock. Take down notes if you require.

1) The opening track MUST be a rocker. Preferably, hovering around 110 - 120 BPM.

2) Track 2 MUST be a rocker too.

3) Track 3 can be a rocker but if not, by track 4, the album MUST slow down to the obligatory rock ballad. If the song is piano-driven, then you will find the singer or the drummer banging the ivories. Holy mother of Christ! This is, indeed, a talented band! Usually, this will be the 2nd single to be released. And normally, this will perform better in the Asian markets and radios. Cuz as you know, we are suckas for ballads.

4) From this point onwards, the rest of the album can be fillers. However, if the band decides to be more experimental by adding strings and electronic beats (i.e. the label has given them more money), you can probably find the band waxing lyrical about how they want to push the envelope and develop themselves as artists on VH-1.

5) Lyrics have got to do with the universal theme of love so that for the music video you can a) hire a hot model as a foil to the lead singer lounging around all angsty or b) hire a hot model to pace aimlessly around in the background while the band performs the song in a warehouse/ a basement/ a rooftop (delete where appropriate).

Daughtry... I can't wait! We have much to learn from you...

Asian Electronica

Some of my friends were featured on this blog Asia Electronica. Quite good to find out that there are some pretty interesting stuff out there as well. Enjoy.

Common (featuring Lily Allen) - Driving Me Wild

Got it off my boy Billy. Lily Allen rocks my bollocks.

Kermit the Frog - Hurt

Sent by Daniel Electrico. Hilarious...

Excited...

I was telling Weiyuan the speed we are recording nowadays is fucken fast, compared to what we used to do. One week (or technically 3 nights), we are almost done with one song. It's pretty ironic that we are putting down the tracks so fast for a defunct band. We are going to finish up the bulk of the song on Sunday and starting work on a new one which Agilan has just completed drums for. Only if we had worked this fast when we were a functioning band.

We are left with recording drums for one last tune and embellishing most of the songs. And of course, Alvin hasn't come in to track most of his parts as he's probably been busy drinking with Agilan and George underneath the void deck/ drinking with his church mates/ drinking with some of his 'hos (delete where appropriate).

Hmm... part 9

"LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!"

Apparently, he's not faking the tears or the emotion... Seriously... I guess Americans emote and express themselves better when there's a camera stuck on their face. It's even better when you have make-up and great lighting to boot.

Gary Jules - Mad World

Gary Jules cover of the Tears For Fears's classic. Great video but I'm not exactly bowled over by his rendition which is just a scaled down piano version of the hit. How original...

I Am Iron Man...

Fuck, yeah!!! Check this out!!! I can't wait!!!

Control

Apparently, the movie's been out for quite a while. This is for those who haven't heard about the movie or know what it's based upon.

In other news, the band formerly known as The Love Experiment resumed recording. It feels good to start again... And recording went pretty smoothly this time round. Hopefully, we'll be done by the end of the year.

Pet Shop Boys - I'm With Stupid

Featuring Matt Lucas and David Williams from Little Britain.

Bilingualism

I was talking to Adelina over MSN just now.


Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
Why are u on channel 8?

I'll be on channel 8 tonight 930pm program (last segment) says:
commenting on Eldershield and Medishield

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
fwah...

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
are u like the foremost expert?

I'll be on channel 8 tonight 930pm program (last segment) says:
no but i'm one of the rare young bilingual advisers around

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
god bless River Valley! hahaha

I'll be on channel 8 tonight 930pm program (last segment) says:
haha bilingualism very impt now. i may be entering HK n China mkt in one or two yrs time thru the company so better practise my cantonese now too

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
ho yeh ar

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
i can't believe within a span of 10 years we've become from uncool chinese-speaking ching-chongs to ppl with actual real skill sets which triumph over the covent/ ang mo-pai school graduates.

I'll be on channel 8 tonight 930pm program (last segment) says:
isn't it fabulous? hehehe

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
i thk it's damn interesting

Willy is only human, not Cylon... says:
i've friends who tell... "eh you MUST capitalize on the fact tt you are biliginual while i wish i could; i'm only monolingual..."

Most of my friends, I'll say up to 70%, can never hold a decent conversation in Mandarin. And we were mocked these very same people 10 years ago for going to Chinese schools, speaking Mandarin. Some have a very good command of English while some are truly monolingual, speaking only Singlish.

Eh, I used to know FOUR (count 'em, bitches) Tang Dynasty poems! The rest of the hard disk space was used to store the entire Marvel and DC Universe history and facts.

In any case, those people who used to tease us are mainly from English schools calling us "ching-chong", etc. In a certain way, they could be right. Some of my secondary school mates were so meek that they dared not protest about anything. If you are thinking about using your linguistic ability to carve a niche in an overseas market like China, just remember you are facing a nation of 1.4 billion very success-hungry people. And that's a real bitch...

2 new songs

I've added 2 new songs from 2 of my favourite Singapore acts Stoned Revivals and Force Vomit on the right.

Force Vomit's 'Sadawaden' is an instrumental piece, a throw-back to their rambunctious surf-punk days complete with guitar feedback and all.

Since I'm such a huge fan of Stoned Revivals, I usually love anything frontman Esam Salleh throws out. 'Hair Farm' is a slab of retro-cool complete with Hammond organs and Rhodes. Nice. I don't understand Malay at all but knowing him, he's probably singing about sex anyway...

Ko tai

Or what is normally known in local terms: getai.

From Wikipedia:

A Getai (literally song stage) (Pinyin of Simplified Chinese: 歌台), is a usually boisterous life stage performance held during the Ghost Festival commonly held in Singapore, in contrast to the generally solemn mood of the festival. The stage setup is usually composed of temporary structures and situated in the suburbs of the city in any empty field or even in carparking spaces.

The event is usually meant to be performed to the spirits and also the people alike during the seventh month. The backdrop of the stage is usually made of cardboard and clothes painted in bright colours. Also, spotlights, usually consisting of brighter colours, like, red, blue, pink and yellow. The performers would normally don loud and glittery clothing, and the compère would spout crude jokes all in the name of fun.

The younger folks in Singapore would normally relate to a Getai as kitsch, as the performers would sing and talk in Hokkien, which is a dialect they label as crude and passe. The older people would normally enjoy watching a Getai, dance and sing along to the staple songs.

This Friday, I'm going down to catch one myself. This one is pretty good. The performing talents are pretty top-notch, I must say. And I'm a HUGE fan of this veteran band, Stoned Revivals. I heard there are many other great acts like The Great Spy Experiment and my boy DJ KoFlow is going to do a collaboration with Wicked Aura Batucada. Nice.

The getai takes place this coming Friday at the National Museum at 730pm. Ai ho wa ki mai?

Hmm... part 9

Was on the way to work today. I had received a call where the number started with a "+86". China phonecall at 8+am?!

Me: Hullo...

Female: Wei... (in Mandarin) Can you speak Mandarin?

Me recognising the PRC accent: (in Mandarin). Yes, wassup?

Female: I'm calling from XXX Hotel from Macau. We are having our anniversary celebration on next Tuesday 4 September. We'll like to invite you to come to the Plaza outside our hotel for the celebration party.

Me: You know you are calling a Singapore number right?

Female telemarketer who is giving extremely dodgy vibes: You are one of the very few being selected so we'll like invite you down this one-in-a-lifetime celebration... (started rambling a whole list of things)

Me: I'm not interested.

Female: Erm, er... okay.

Me: Bye.

I should have asked if it includes free flight and accomodation to Macau even though the whole scam stinks like David Hasslehoff's music career. Fuck...

Malaysia Boleh!!!

To all my Malaysian friends, Happy Medeka Day!!! \m/

At least, it's a long weekend...

Hmm... part 8

Billyboy just sent me this piece of news about My Bloody Valentine having a possible reunion.

Pardon me, if I don't go all fanboy crazy or anything. I'll get the remastered copy of Loveless, I guess. The original didn't sound too good to me anyway. Too compressed and mushy.

These days, I'm just not excited by anything at all. Particularly, music wise. This is coming from a guy who spends quite a portion of his time listening to and reading up about music. I'm just looking forward to catching Iron Man and The Dark Knight next year. That's about it.

Maybe I need a new hobby, probably, knitting or quantum physics...

Rihanna - Umbrella (lip synched by TP students)

Students who are too free who make stupid videos. Makes me miss being a student all over again... Heh.

Hey Venus!

Fuck, I didn't know Super Furry Animals just released a new album Hey Venus! (They had an amazing song 'Serena And Venus' on Phantom Power. Think they have an unhealthy obsession with the Williams sisters.) today. Woo hoo!!! Finally, I get to do some retail therapy. More here.

DJ Shadow - Organ Donor (live)

Still my favourite DJ saviour.

Blackbird

Nothing to do with the Beatles tune. Noel just got his ass (technically, it's his left calf) inked. It's pretty nice. But I thought the shaved leg was funnier...

Give me Face...

Natalie added me. And at the behest of my darling Pamela (pronounced as Pa-meh-lah; I'm not shitting you. That's how some peeps say her name).

Here's my Facebook profile.

Wilco - You Are My Free (live)

I love Wilco man...

Me in Springfield

Click on the picture to get your own.

Thanks, Edwin!

Edwin managed to dig this one out... Halloween 2005. It was pretty fun.

Chuck Norris/ Jack Bauer

Everyone loves a good Chuck Norris joke.

Chuck Norris uses ribbed condoms inside out, so he gets the pleasure.

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

When Chuck Norris has sex with a man, it is not because he is gay, but because he has run out of women.

Macgyver can build an airplane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take it.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

Chuck Norris only masturbates to pictures of Chuck Norris.

Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.

Chuck Norris appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."

Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his dad did.

In fact, you can replace Jack Bauer from 24 with Chuck Norris and you'll get the same, if not, funnier jokes. 24 is soooo over-rated man.

Most people would need months to recover from 20 months of Chinese interrogation. Jack Bauer needs a shower, a shave and a change of clothes.

When a convicted terrorist was sentenced to face Jack Bauer, he appealed to have the sentence reduced to death.

Once, someone tried to tell Jack Bauer a "knock knock" joke. Jack Bauer found out who was there, who they worked for, and where the goddamned bomb was.

The 2007 budget for the US Military covers Jack Bauer, two pistols and four billion rounds of ammunition.

Jack Bauer quit for just five minutes, and a nuclear bomb went off.

1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

Jack doesn't believe in Murphy's Law, only Bauer's Law: "Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL be resolved in a period of 24 hours."

Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice. Jack Bauer would meanwhile do something important.

Aging Youth Records

NEW!

I've uploaded 2 tracks from B-Quartet and Zero Sequence's upcoming albums at our MySpace page. B-Quartet's 'Kleptomaniac' and Zero Sequence's 'Wreckage' will be up for the next 2 days.

The next time you'll get to hear it, it'll be on their respective albums!

Knocked Up

The Bourne trilogy

Thanks to Kevin, I was able to catch the 1st two movies of the series on Sunday. Some of my friends thought the 1st movie, The Bourne Identity was better than the 2nd one, The Bourne Supremacy.

Well, I've never figured Matt Damon for an action hero. So I didn't even bother until recently when my favourite site CHUD raved incessantly about The Bourne Ultimatum and how the trilogy is the best action movie series ever. Hey, nothing beats a bunch of movie-obsessed internet geeks.

Probably will catch the last in the series some time this week.

The Killing Joke

Got these photos off CHUD.







My good friends aka the fanboys' comments:

[12:27] adlin is busy.:
nice!

[12:27] adlin is busy.:
batman is lower priority than ironman

[12:27] adlin is busy.:
for me

[12:27] adlin is busy.:
hahah

[12:28] Willy:
hehehe

[12:25] billy:
heath looks really good

[12:25] Willy:
the fucker's balding man!!!

Hmm... part 7

Did fuck-all for the past 3 days. I was listening repeatedly to some of the Lard Brothers' stuff over the past weekend. Shameless, I know. But hey...

We'll need to redo Max's vocals for some songs. And thought of reviving the George Michael tribute. I was supposed to start trimming the tune down from 6 minutes 4 seconds down to about 5 minutes. At least, I cleaned up the muddy bass frequencies. I'll probably need to layer a punchier beat as well. Goddamn these Hong Kong TVB drama serials!!! Goddamn cable TV!!!

And meanwhile, I wait for Adlin to help me record Chingz for the highrise remix. *shakes fist in the northern cirection*

The defunct band known as The Love Experiment will be returning to record more drums for songs which will be recorded and released online... Hopefully, all within this decade. Fuck.

Sell-out

Weiyuan came out of the closet to me yesterday.

He has a blog.

He is was the former leader of the Underground Resistance Against Blogs. And now he has a blog which promotes environmentalism. Ob-fucken-viously, the fucker has been watching way too much Battlestar Galattica these days. He should lend me the DVDs.

Back to my Little Britain DVDs.

Anyway, I've added some new folks to the list on the right: Noel, Ant and Pamela. All ex-colleagues of mine. Nice peeps and all. But who cares about them when you can add Felicia Chin's blog to your list? Woo hoo! I was sold to add the link after I saw this photo. Nice way of filling up a No. 3.

My weekend

Went to a health spa with Billy, Aaron and Gavin for a full body massage yesterday. No, not those with a happy ending, fuckers. Still it was pretty expensive. I arrived fashionably late as usual like 2 hours late so I missed the mass jacuzzi session. That shit rocks. I couldn't take the steam room though.

In the massage room, they would step on your back and contort your body in weird ass positions in order to crack your joints and back. As it is all men getting the massage, so you can imagine all the men trying to stay calm and retain our inherent macho-ness. No screaming and crying when the masseuse jammed her toes into your back or when she tried to rearrange your spleen. No sirree. I thought I gave a small "eep" when my masseuse re-introduced my knee to my face after all these years.

But yeah, it was very quiet in the room where 30 guys were getting their massage, except for this guy snoring away. Well, at least someone was enjoying himself.

Caught the new Royston Tan flick 881 about a pair of getai singers called the Payaya Sisters. I thought it was a pretty good film. The teaser trailer was really good but the theatrical trailer was pretty crap, throwing me off. It focused too much on the camp aspect of the film, utterly neglecting the dramatic aspect of the show.

Well, it's got pretty good word-of-mouth from my friends. Gavin was the post-production producer on this flick (and well, pretty much all of the locally produced movies anyway). Vivian of The Obs worked on this as well. I kept seeing a Clement Yang in the soundtrack credits. I wonder if it's the same Clement from Ugly In The Morning.

Anyway, the show was pretty much carried by the credible performances of the 3 main female leads, Liu Lingling, Yeo Yann Yann (who was great in Singapore Dreaming) and Mindee Ong who is really as cute as a button in this show. As in really cute.

Ermmm, moving on.

Here's Royston Tan and Karen Lim (a real life getai singer and a supporting character in the movie) doing a song from the movie.

Yeah, it's a Hokkien movie musical.

Hmm... part 6

My backside feels very itchy today. I think I'll go buy some CDs and layan sendiri...

Baybeats photos

Chingz, Sen Kiat and me at Baybeats.

I think this was taken before B-Quartet's set. Chingz' band Alaling played an acoustic set at the festival. A bit quiet during their set. They should be coming down again end of October.

And I learnt a new Malay phrase: layan sendiri. Yes, "entertain yourselves", bitches!

Day 1 of SINGFest

Adlin posted my MSN review of Day 1 of SINGFest here. Thanks!

Pet Shop Boys

I is going to SingFest tomorrow. Woo hoo!!! Pretty excited to catch Pet Shop Boys again! Usually for most acts (especially, the nostalgic ones), you'll hope that they bring out their classics and old hits to perform. Not for tomorrow. Though I reckon Fundamental probably didn't sell too well, it rocks! I'm looking to hearing most of the tunes from that album played live!

80's videos

Was watching VH-1's top 100 80's videos. Caught snipplets of a few of the videos. I mean, seriously how do you live with yourself after doing something like this?

Styx - Mr. Roboto



Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart



Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)



Just because lead singer Pete Burns looks like an absolute freek worse than Michael Jackson these days. Check it here.

Baybeats/ SingFest

Went for the past 2 days of Baybeats. Is very tired. Standing up to catch concerts is just not my thing anymore.

Anyway, Zero Sequence will be performing their progressive rock this Friday at the Esplanade Powerhouse Stage at 845pm. B-Quartet will be opening for them. Good stuff.

Not sure if Adlin could score me a ticket to cover SingFest for JUNK magazine but I hope so. Is looking forward to catch Pet Shop Boys. I love their last album Fundamental!

Fuck yeah!!!

Eric sent me this link. You've probably heard of this before anyway.

Mercury Rev

The Cure was pretty boring yesterday. I fell asleep twice during the 3-hour show. The band was missing a keyboardist to fill up the soundscape, adding lush passages to classics like 'Lullaby' and 'Lovesong'.

Tonight, I'm covering the Mercury Rev show for JUNK magazine. Hmm, I hope I can stay awake long enough...

The Cure...

Meeting Billy to catch The Cure later. Not particularly excited.

[09:25] Willy:
yo!

[09:25] billy:
yeah

[09:26] billy:
we meeting at 6 is it?

[09:36] Willy:
ard 615?

[09:37] billy:
at bkt merah central, right?

[09:37] Willy:
yeah..

[09:37] billy:
okies

[09:44] Willy:
hope i dun fall asleep later

[09:44] billy:
i also say

[09:44] Willy:
i prolly wouldn't know more than half of the songs

[09:44] billy:
so sad we're so ambivalent now

[09:44] billy:
the cure used to be as important to me as the smiths

[09:44] billy:
stone roses even

[09:49] Willy:
i thk it's tt they are not as relevant these days to us

[09:49] Willy:
like say, beyonce and rihanna

[09:49] billy:
rihanna very relevant to me leh

[09:49] billy:
umbrella's my new jam

King Kong Jane - Umbrella (Rihanna cover)

My friend Ian Ho's band King Kong Jane covering Rihanna. I've always wanted to cover Beyonce myself. "To the left... to the left..."

When Love And Hate Collides

Back in mid 2005, my group of NS friends and I headed to a KTV pub in Boat Quay. I don't sing karaoke. But I enjoy the company and watching Taiwanese "rock" band F.I.R's music/ karaoke videos. Singer Faye rawks my bollocks.

Anyway, Kevin and Khai were there as well. They fell out as a result of beer money. Khai had refused to pay an equal amount for the bill since he had not drunk as much. Well, he wasn't paid that much those days as a pilot cadet. That was understandable lah.

The quarrel was so intense that it nearly spilled into a brawl. A minor one. As a result, Kevin refused to speak to Khai after the incident. Even at ZoukOut 2005, he ignored him completely. Earlier this year during Gim's birthday celebration at MOS, being the bastard I was, I tried "introducing" Khai to Kevin after Keishi and Carlos.

Kevin: I've met enough new people tonight. Two's my limit.

Fucken hilarious lah.

Anyway, I've met up with them on Saturday. Khai popped by MOS and put his arm around Kevin, saying, "Wassup?". Kevin started screaming, "Get your filthy hands off me!!!" And he kept on screaming the whole night when the 2 of them shared a cab back with Chung, "Pay for your cab fare tonight!!!"

Apparently, Kevin "Gayboy" Ang and Wong "King Cock" Khai Cheng bumped into each other the night before and reconcilled somewhat. I tell you, it's almost like a gay relationship. Fucken hilarious.

I love my friends...

Old skool

Natalie just sent me a link to this tribute to local indie music. Great stuff.

Introspection

I've been going through my friends' blogs and live journals. See list on the right column. So I've been doing some thinking of my own.

Let me share with you guys this recent incident which changed my life. I think it's only right you guys reading this blog should know.

Natalie and I were talking on MSN recently. She mentioned to me that most Scorpios (that's me) are very moody and unpredicatable; no one really knows what they are thinking about and Scorpios usually expect others to know what is in their minds.

I thought about it the whole night. It's quite true. I keep too much to myself and perhaps always second-guessing my actions. In fact, Eng Teck told me before that I'm like a ticking time-bomb, trying to maintain control of my emotions all the time.

Then I decided, "Fuck it. Life is short. I don't wanna miss any opportunities anymore..."

The next day, I saw Nat online and decided to confess to her.

Me: Hey, after what you told me yesterday about the nature of Scorpios, I was quite affected.

Nat: Yeah?

Me: You know the part about how Scorpios always keep their thoughts to themselves and how they expect other folks to know what they are thinking.

Nat: Uh-huh.

Me: I've something I've always been meaning to tell you. I really need to get this off my chest.

Nat: Okay, what is it?

Me: I want a Bang & Ofulsen sound system for Christmas. Thanks!

For the rest of you guys reading, I'd like a cherry red Gibson ES-335 with a Bigsby tremolo. Thanks!

I Want You...

This is the best recruitment advertisement I've seen in a long while. Here's the job description.

Bear Grylls

I heard he's the new Steve Irwin. Damn hardcore!

Inspiration required...

Was talking to Adlin on MSN yesterday.

Somehow, it feels a bit draining these days. Not particularly inspired to do anything. Gotta get off my ass and start doing some stuff!

Gettin' old

The best band which came outta Chicago ain't Smashing Pumpkins. Sorry, both Lindas. The latest album by BC.JC (as in Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin credited in the liner notes. Very cute, Mr. Potatohead. I approve.) Zeitgeist is so-so. There are more vocal harmonies but that's about it.

Just finished watching the DVD which came with Chicago's finest Wilco's latest album Sky Blue Sky. It sounds pretty good and getting better with every listen. Latest addition, guitarist Nels Cline is a bastard. He's too fucken good on the lap steel and them guitars. The album sounds like a cross between Neil Young and The Beatles' White Album. I dunno why.

Prolly, if I were 10 years younger, I might have liked the Pumpkins album better? With all the loud guitars and thundering drums. Then again, maybe not. Anyway, I might be the only one who actually thinks Machina is a good album. I like the last few songs. They sound like The Cure.

Bintan

I was over at Bintan with Eric, Weng, Shirana, Suzanne, Ray and Jeremy last weekend. Just read the papers that Sir Ian McKellen was there over the weekend as well.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the good fortune to bump into him.

And unfortunately, I don't have the photos yet too. So till next time!

The Slapping Game

Kinho forwarded this to me. Pretty funny game. You go around slapping the shit outta people.

Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address

Haykal placed a short animation clip of 'Personal Space' off the upcoming full length Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address.



And I found an old video of B-Quartet when they were still truly a quartet. Faizal was doing the sound effects, instead of Sirraj now. Nice. Check it out here.

Sensitivity issues

Got this from Charmaine.

"These strawberry fields with daffodils come so sweet..."

Have been hanging out at Snakeweed Acoustic Labs these past weeks since I'm fucken free and all. I've just popped down to take a listen to Zero Sequence's mixing sessions and crash B-Quartet's recording sessions.

Zero Sequence are done recording and have started to mix. Which is really fast as they started very early this year. I've heard some of the tracks as Simon has posted them on their MySpace page. Really great stuff. There are certain ideas which the band has referenced from classic rock acts like Queen and Pink Floyd. Just check out 'Wreckage' and 'Transcendence'. Bastards! I always hate it when my friends do better than me, especially when it comes to ripping other people off. Heh.

Just finished recording last week, B-Quartet is going to start mixing soon as well. I've an unmixed and unmastered version with me. It sounds astounding. I think they've outdone themselves this time. Some of the songs sound amazing with all the additional layers they've added.

This is going to be a busy 2nd half of 2007 for us.

Tears For Fears - Shout (live)

I love how they always reinterpret their own tune, especially this one for their live shows. Love the guitar solo.

Flight of the Conchords

Got this off Billy. This is from a new HBO series which is a musical comedy. This song reminds me of Pet Shop Boys a lot.

Flaming Lips (with Cat Power) - War Pigs (live)

Every band should cover at least one Black Sabbath song. Look at Flaming Lips. They even brought out the irresistably cute Chan Marshall for this tune. I really doubt she has ever heard the song before the soundcheck.

Fuck yeah!!!

Finally! The highrise remix is almost done. Thank you, Bjork! (Though it sounds nothing like whatever she has ever put out.) It's down to the mixing stage.

Hopefully, some peeps might like it.

Join in the discussion...

Click here. The site is not work-safe or suitable for all. Up to your personal discretion.

Hot Fuzz

Everyone is catching Transformers and Die Hard 4.0 these 2 weeks. But do yourself a favour. Catch this before you do Die Hard 4.0. Interestingly, it features quite a few uncredited cameos which I didn't catch. Here's the list.

So long and thanks for all the fish...

The Love Experiment is no more. Thanks for your love. Here's the final word.

Lamb - B Line (live)

Not exactly my favourite Lamb tune but I love how they reworked this song. Check out this one 'Fly'. Excellent!

Kids...

Was reading up on the Hellboy sequel. Apparently, Sandman creator Neil Gaiman's a very good friend of director Guillermo del Toro and was invited to join them on the set. He brought along his teenage daughter, Madeleine R.E. Gaiman for the ride. She's been blogging about their trip here. She's pretty funny and I guess, writing runs in the family.

Kids are precocious...

They are back!

Billy boy dropped me an email with this URL.

The Verve is back! Well, it's definitely not as exciting as the Spice Girls reunion (Fuck, yeah right...). They are one of my favourite-est (fuck yeah, I just invented that word.) bands.

And I posted an entry not long ago about Nick McCabe totally not on talking terms with Richard "I've got a serious God complex" Ashcroft. And Dick himself had mentioned something along the lines of Jesus will walk the earth before The Verve will ever reform.

Well, I guess Jesus ain't helping with the house mortgages.

I'm taking bets that they will announce another split by the end of 2008, the very latest is early 2009! More exciting news than Mr. Potatohead (aka Billy Corgan)'s latest attempt at the limelight again!

Humpback Oak - Finer Life (live)

They reformed just for the Rock For Wayne show. I'm sure Wayne will be happy to see them. I know I was. And they did 'Circling Square' too!!! All the old classics!

The cutest thing...

Found this off Noel's Mulitply page and YouTube it. This is the cutest thing I've seen for the longest time. This little girl singing a Malay tune. So expressive...

My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow

I thought they only take drugs and record sporadically. But hey, I found an old video of them. Yeah, I always thought Belinda Butcher's pretty cute.

Smashing Pumpkins does Dallas too...

Smashing Pumpkins - Doomsday Clock (live)


Fast joining the ranks of nostalgic acts like The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, etc. (Hey, nothing wrong with that!), Billy 'Mr. Potatohead' Corgan's newly revived Smashing Pumpkins have been pushing their upcoming album.

Check out the new members. Bassist Ginger Reyes really looks like a porn star. Check out those fuck-me platform boots lah. And what's up with the touring keyboardist Whats-her-name's mile-high club get up? Replacement guitarist Jeff Schroeder looks like a lovechild between drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and ex-member James Iha. I know, it's weird and scary at the same time.

Cool links

Adlin sent me some interesting sites to check out.

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? It's meant to be a classic album, but all you can hear is a load of boring tripe ... we've all felt that way. And so have the musicians we asked to nominate the supposedly great records they'd gladly never hear again.

This is a Guardian article about classics which are overrated. I totally emphatize with Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos on Television's Marquee Moon. I thought The Strokes really did Television better than Television!

Here's another one called 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite'. Pretty funny blog based in Malaysia where people blog about what they have shoplifted. Love the Smiths reference. The Love Experiment was almost called The Shoplifters' Union once, as a tribute to the Mancunian band and well, a certain ex-hobby of ours. But all is good and we are respectable members of society now. All past deeds are swept underneath the carpet. Move along... there's nothing to see.

Debbie Does Dallas...

... again.

New clothes

2 more weeks!!!

Maxwell

I fucken love this guy! His first album Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite was ace but the sophomore Embrya was pretty dry, to me, at least. However, I love the 3rd album Now which was released like back in 2001. Since then, no one has heard a peep from the guy lah. Can't really find anything on him on Google as well.

However, he's coming back with a trilogy (everyone's doing it these days!) of albums starting from this year with each one being released every consecutive year. And he's back with a new look. No 'fro. Oi, wassup with that? Chekkit out here. He rocks!

Maxwell - This Woman's Work


I prefer the version which he did on his MTV Unplugged album than this one found on Now. This is a Kate Bush cover. Her version is found here.

The side of the story which no one knew?

The Verve is one of my all-time favourite bands. I loved almost everything they've put out, ranging from the reverb-soaked self-titled EP to the adult-oriented rock of the last album Urban Hymns. Although he's an amazing singer and the occasional brilliant lyricist, Richard Ashcroft is pretty much of a dick. (I kill myself... seriously.)

Here's a very old interview with the band's guitarist, Nick McCabe, a guitar hero of mine too.

Getting my shit together...

I've been rather a slow ass in many things I'm supposed to have done.

1) I finally got my ass back to the highrise remix for 'Rain' which I owe Tim for a few months. Spent an afternoon fixing up the beats and trying to restructure the entire song. I had some inkling of what to do with it. Am going to try to complete it by the end of the month. I really hope!

2) I NEED to get my ass down to doing drum replacement for Robin's side project, Toys In The Attic's track 'To Be Loved'. Was seeking advice from Joe (Foo) about this. He told me not to touch the hi-hats too much as that's the one which carries the most "human touch". We are pretty screwed here as we only have one file sharing the hi-hat and snare sounds. Long story there.

3) It looks like The Lard Brothers' 1st ever proper live show is fucked. We are supposed to launch our debut EP in October. We should have enough material for a 5 - 6 track EP but so far, only 3 tracks are probably there. We are working with Joanne and Robin of Toys In The Attic on a new tune. She has a great set of pipes. ‘Caetano’ (as in the Brazilian bossa nova composer Caetano Veloso - Hey, the DVD was lying around at my place.) is the working title.

Robin came up with the chord progression and we mucked around with some vocal melody ideas. When we worked out the tune with Joanne at his place, she changed quite a bit of the vocal melody. The two were pretty hard at work while I was even busier mucking around with Robin’s CD collection and Star Wars toys. In any case, we recorded a simple demo which will be fleshed out. I’ve uninstalled my Rhodes plug-in by accident. Fuck. Ah well, I’ll probably have to use the Hammond plug-in for this now. Fuck, I loved that Rhodes plug-in!

4) I’ve been talking to Randolf about doing soundtracks. He did a few before for a few filmmakers but recently, with the birth of his son, Ramon, he’s been too busy to take up any collaboration. He says it’s pretty fun and the process for him is usually quite a collaborative one. But his ideas have been rejected at times and it’s back to the drawing board for him then. Documentary In Amber is currently scoring a soundtrack for an indie documentary filmmaker. So is Lunarin.

I’ve always been obsessed with doing movie soundtracks, being a big fan of David Holmes, Ennio Morriccone and a few others. I’ve always wondered how I can get my grubby foot past the door into that world. Adlin told me he's starting composing commercial jingles beside his usual work for Lied. Sounds like fun but I don't think I can come up with anything but country tunes to sell detergent, cars and insurance. Not easy work. I respect.

Hopefully, my friend really can get his "first porn movie in Singapore" project off the ground. I've volunteered my services to score the soundtrack. If so, I'd probably have to make the final switch to Neutendo. Looking forward to both. Heh.

Hey, it's a start...

Hmm... part 4

This is a photo which I took with Graham's boy, Hansen 2 months ago. I know, it's hard to tell who's the cuter one. That occasion was the 1st time I've seen the lil bugger since his 2nd day on this planet. I'd say that he has grown considerably in size. I think he turns 1 in a month's time. Time flies when you are having kids. Even those not of your own! Ha!

But marriage has sorta changed Graham a bit. His current hobby is hiking. Hey, different strokes for different folks, I'd say. But what's most disturbing about his recent hobbies are his research in female hiking sanitation. Check out how ladies wee-wee out in the open here.

Gauchos - The Trooper (Iron Madien cover)

Some Hispanic family covering an Iron Maiden tune. Not my favourite Iron Maiden song though but the little toddler girl rocking out is absolutely hilarous. Her crystal ball hand signs are the best! And her headbanging!!! Props to Fuzz for sending this.

The X'mas present you should get for me...

It's never too many a gift nor is it too early. You can buy me this here.

B-Quartet - Dry Rain (live)

The boys don't do this tune live anymore. Dug it out of the archives. Thanks to Simon, Jacen and James for filming this. Amazing performance.

The Love Experiment @ Timbre

The Love Experiment will be performing at Timbre (45 Armenian Street, The
Substation) on Saturday 9 June. We go onstage at 7:30pm sharp. So donch be late! Thanks to Terence for inviting us!

We'll be performing with quite a couple of our friends from B-Quartet, Super Illegals, Ugly In The Morning, The Pinholes, Plain Sunset and West Grand Boulevard (sorry, no more Daphne Khoo liao).

This is the only show we are performing this year (so far lah) because we are heading back to the Love Studios to play Xbox finish up the album. Hopefully, we'd be done before any one in the band turns 30 and start developing any mid-life crisis. And no, we are not bringing out the pole dancers for this show. Not this time. But we promise a lap dance from Weiyuan for anyone who turns up! Hell yeah!!!

By the way, we just changed our Top 24 friends on our MySpace page:
www.myspace.com/theloveexperiment. Here's the schedule for Rock The Sub. Click on it.

Retail therapy...

Just returned from CD shopping. Had to resist very hard from attempting to finish up my David Bowie's collection. Hunky Dory, Alladin Sane and Ziggy Stardust were on sale. But I've gotten Tool's Opiate, Wilco's A Ghost Is Born and Cowboy Junkies' Open instead. For me, these albums are much harder to find.

I think Robin is the only Cowboy Junkies fan I know and perhaps the only one who knows their material other than the cover of Lou Reed's 'Sweet Jane'.

Meeting Billy soon. The McAlmont & Butler CD is finally here! Woot!

木瓜姐妹881 - Papaya Sisters 881

The new Royston Tan movie trailer. Link was forwarded by Wendy.