Majulah Singapura!

The Lard Brothers are a hip-hop-based side project made up of Bob Seng and Bob Tan. Amidst recording an album for their defunct main band, The Love Experiment, they decided to embark on a Mark Ronson-esque project by revamping and recording popular and their favourite Singaporean indie tunes.

Joined recently by another overweight comrade, Bob Tang, they invited their friends to guest on the album, lending their vocal talents and instrumental prowess. Each cover is a re-imagination of the original tune, embarking on a vastly different path from its original.

Pioneering Singapore rock act The Padres’ rebel anthem ‘Radio Station’ is turned into a Nick Cave-esque funeral dirge sung by folk troubadour Koff Koff. marchtwelve’s Dewi-marie Vincoy lends her pipes and You And Whose Army?’s Adam Shah provides his prodigious drumming talent on a ska-reggae rendition of Serenaide’s indie-pop classic ‘The Boy From Katong’. Toys In The Attic’s Joanne Sandhu turns up on a funk-soul version of TypeWriter’s ‘Enemy’. Ex-frontwoman of indie rockers Super Illegals, Biddy Low scats and croons her way through a lounge version of Plainsunset’s self-titled punk-rock classic.

Fellow labelmates B-Quartet’s Bani Haykal and Allura’s Inch Chua help out on 2 songs. Haykal sings on a R’n’B-meets-trip hop rendition of folk-rock legends Humpback Oak’s classic ‘Circling Square’ while Inch belts out on B-Quartet’s ‘Shoebox’, re-tooled as a loving tribute to Icelandic songbird, Björk. Phorous’ indie electronica-tinged ‘Shadowgraphs’ is done as a campfire sing-a-long tune, led by The Love Experiment’s Tan Yeeyong with the rest of the guest performers providing backing vocals.

DMC champion DJ Ko Flow shows off his formidable turntablist skill on the soul-inflicted ‘Wish You'll Never Leave’ while critically acclaimed MC Garuda spits some introspective rhymes over the proceedings. The hip-hop track samples local alt-rock band marchtwelve’s ‘Dear You’.

Forest Action Team features ‘Democracy’, an original work thinly veiled as a non-political statement and ‘PoniesSoothePeople’, a Sony PlayStation Portable tribute track with their regular collaborator, Maximillian Ho.

The album is released online via the Aging Youth Records site and can be downloaded for free from National Day, Saturday 9 August 2008 onwards. Forest Action Team is produced and recorded at the Love Studios by The Lard Brothers.


Track listing:

1. Previously…
2. Enemy (featuring Joanne Sandhu)
3. Circling Square (featuring Bani Haykal)
4. The Boy From Katong (featuring Dewi-marie Vincoy, Adam Shah and Bryan Goh)
5. Democracy (featuring Roger Maximillian Christian Ho)
6. Shoebox (featuring Inch Chua)
7. Being Phat Isn’t A Krime
8. PoniesSoothePeople
9. Radio Station (featuring Koff Koff)
10. Plainsunset (featuring Biddy Low)
11. Scream
12. Wish You’ll Never Leave Time (featuring MC Garuda and DJ Ko Flow)
13. Shadowgraphs (featuring Tan Yeeyong)

The Lard Brothers are Bob Seng, Bob Tan and Bob Tang.

Weiyuan is uploading the page tonight. However, if you can't wait, the direct link to download the album is on the right column.

We spent around close to 10 months putting this together. Finally, it's done!!! FINALLY!!! Enjoy...

Fwah...

So efficient! The power of da Internet!

We are featured here less than 2 hours of me sending in the press release. Nice.

The Lard Brothers part 33

This is the final update. Everything is done.

Artwork - 80%. The designer Cherie fractured her arm so Yeeyong will help us to arrange the cover a bit. We should be uploading this either tomorrow or Friday the latest to get ready for National Day.

And that, you can count on me, Singapore!

Yeeyong also did lead vocals on our cover of Phorous' 'Shadowgraphs' which was the first song we did for the project. Subsequently, he helped out a bit on keyboards for 'Circling Square' and 'Plainsunset'.

Obviously, he thinks that posing with his dog also can get him chicks... but everybody loves Joey. Check out his left ear! Hahaha...

The cutest thing I've seen today...

Sidney, Roxanne's daughter and Linda's flower girl at her wedding.

My kinda humour...

Got it off Benita.

Your result for The 3 Variable Funny Test...

the Wit

(57% dark, 38% spontaneous, 26% vulgar)

your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK

You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.

I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer.

Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.

You probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm
talking about, check it out here.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais






The 3-Variable Funny Test!

Speech

Read this off Grace's blog. Really good. Here's a snipplet. It's from a convocation speech to the class of '08 (NTU) by Adrian Tan who wrote The Teenage Textbook in the 80's.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

I am once again at a crossroads...

It's The Lard Brothers, ya'll!!!

Garuda came over last night (Thursday) and spat some rhymes over the last tune we are doing for Forest Action Team. Never spoke to him before but he's a really nice guy. Not as boisterous as what most people would think rappers are.

'Wish You'll Never Leave Time' features a vocal sample off marchtwelve's 'Dear You'. Joseph was brave enough to ask us if we'd remix them. Hopefully, sampling them in a rap tune is cool with 'em. Gotta clear that with them... and get Ko Flow (who scratched on the track) to take a photo like the one above...

Edit:



Ko Flow

Gnarls Barkley - Reckoner (live)

I hate mobile phones videos on YouTube. But this has to be posted. Gnarls Barkley covering Radiohead's 'Reckoner' (which is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite Radiohead tunes) from the latest album In Rainbows.

And it's always funny to see a fat black man trying to moonwalk. Cee-lo Green: The original Lard Brother.

Quantum Of Solace

Looks like Jack White and Alicia Keys got the job.

Transformers

Nice... Stop-motion always rulezzz...

Office War

Got from Beni.

Pearl Jam - Love, Reign O'er Me/ The Real Me (live)

Pearl Jam has always covered The Who in their live shows. So they were naturally the ones chosen to perform for the 'VH-1 Rock Honors: The Who' event. They took 2 tunes from the rock opera Quadrophenia. I thought Eddie Vedder was a bit over the top though...

The Lurks

The KL-based Lurks played a show for us last year. See the above photo. I like their electro jams. I didn't realise that Adlin sang on a recently recorded tune for them.

But then, it's Adlin, the band slut. Nothing too surprising. Check it out here.

The Lard Brothers part 31

There are few things in life which are worse than the picture above.

But one of which is not the release of Forest Action Team. It looks like we might be able to make it to release it on National Day after all.

Majulah Singapura! MC Garuda will be popping by this coming Thursday to throw down some rhymes while rapper Freaky Z will be handing in his parts by the end of the week. Fingers crossed.

In any case, I'm talking to Weiyuan about a potential follow-up. Perhaps, something along the lines of a concept album like in the veins of The Who's Tommy, DJ Shadow's Entroducing, etc. Firstly, I think we need to think of a theme...

Ah well, let's see how it goes.

The Cardigans - Changes (live)

I love The Cardigans and they love Black Sabbath. They've recorded 2 of Black Sabbath's tunes on their albums previously. I've not heard this before. But the great thing about them is that they adapt the cover in their own style (something I can relate to. Hehehe...). 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' was done in a disco-indie-pop style while 'Iron Man' was a trip-hop reading. 'Changes' fits their current music style, country and folk. Lovely cover...

The Mars Volta- Wax Simulacra (live)

I've only one album by The Mars Volta but these guys are insane, taking prog-rock to a different level.

Futon - Strap It On (live)

I like them quite a bit though they are very much an one-trick pony. And their biggest claim to fame is that their drummer is Simon Gilbert who used to be in Suede. My ex-colleague (a sound engineer) said that he was one of the best drummers that he worked with when I worked with Futon 2 years ago. Well, ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler hates Simon Gilbert's playing while he was still in Suede.

Gilbert reminds me of The Beatles' Ringo Starr and The Rolling Stones' Charlie Ward. Simple, effective and serves the song.

In any case, I read on their official site that they are recording their new album Siamese Tease soon. It'd be probably rehashing the same stuff but you bet your gay ass I'll be buying it.

The Chemical Brothers - Midnight Madness

The Kanye approves. Check it out.

Beck featuring Cat Power - Orphans

One of my favourite singers, Beck has released a new album Modern Guilt. Worked with Danger Mouse on this. Probably will get a copy soon.

There are some new choons on his MySpace here.

My epiphany...

Education guru Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. Sir Ken Robinson is author of "Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative," and a leading expert on innovation in education and business. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)

Click here for more and here for more info on Ken Robinson.

Feist on Sesame Street

Feist adapting her tune '1234' to Sesame Street. It's damn cute but where the hell is the Count?

Alaling & The Kaya Koks - The First Time (live)

Chingz demonstrating why Sen Kiat's shirt always seem so nicely pressed...

tb.fk.as

Yeeyong and Bryan's sound-art project which Weiyuan has slutted his ass into. They posted a 14 or 15 minute track here.

While I don't think they will be giving Brian Eno a run for his money, it's one of those tracks you play in the background. Not meant to take to much centre-stage.

My favourite The Who tunes

Their music were brought back to this generation (hurhur...) when Jerry Bruckheimer, being a huge fan, decided to use their songs as the themes for all his CSI shows. Here are a couple of my personal favourites.

Baba O' Riley (live)



Used for CSI: New York, if I'm not wrong. "Teeeeennnageeee wasteland... it's only teenage wasteland!!!"

Summertime Blues (live)



One of the few covers they ever did. Great stuff. The video clearly demostrated why drummer Keith Moon was used as the template when they designed the muppet Animal. They did a cover of Beach Boys

Won't Get Fooled Again (live)



Used for CSI: Miami. I love this tune. The audio quality is pretty bad but the light show and performance are pretty insane.

My Generation (live)



The classic anthem which inspired the title of a defunct local music magazine.

Behind Blue Eyes (live)



Well, most of my favourite tunes are from Who's Next?. This is one of them. This live video is recorded a year after drummer Keith Moon's death. This is probably when you start hearing the hi-hat in The Who's tunes as Keith Moon totally eschews the hi-hat.

See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You (live)



The main theme from Tommy.

As you can tell, I'm a huge fan. How big of a fan? I've a boxset, several albums and quite a couple of digitally remastered re-issues. The Who, in particular, under the leader of guitarist Pete Townshend wrote subversive pop tunes in the 60's before diving full-scale rock operas and concept albums. All wrapped within the context of a 4-piece rock'n'roll band (with the occasional triggered appregiated synthesizer).

Alaling & The Kaya Koks - Oceans Part (live)

Chingz covering Adlin.

I took a power nap...

... and dreamt I was out drinking.

I feel refreshed.

Radiohead - House Of Cards

Yesssshhh, the latest single and THAT groundbreaking video.

The Horse Whisperer

Hansen, Roy and I were down at the Kranji Turf Club yesterday.

It was our virgin trip down. Part of my 'What's the last time you did something new?' resolution this year. We've been talking about it for a few years. So we decided to make a trip down on Sunday. Being the spoilt fuckers we were, we decided to take the air-conditioned grandstand which has a better view. The races are over pretty fast though.

I punted around $20. Placed it as a win for 2 hot favourites on Game 5 yesterday. And lost it as Aquila came in a dark horse. After deciding not to buy any more wins, I put down Zizou and British Navy for placing in the final 3 for Game 6.The true hot favourite, Ntini came in first, followed by Zizou. The dividend was only $5. A $5 bet to win $5. Quite WTF, I know. Ah well... At least, I won some money back.

It was pretty fun with all the screaming and shit and watching them horses run. Time to start looking for the go-karting course in JB.

Doves - Pounding (live)

I was ripping my CDs to mp3s. I came across their album The Last Broadcast. And someone played this song at the 4 Imaginary Boys vs. Pop My Cherry on Saturday at House.

I love this tune. This is not the full version though...

N.E.R.D. (featuring Santogold and Julian Casablancas) - My Drive Thru'

Great video. Not a new concept but nice... Tune's decent, too... Download the song for free here.

Lily Allen

I think the new album is coming out pretty soon and is done by producer wunderkid Mark Ronson. Guess which medium she used to share some of the new tracks? The one which made her famous, of course. Check out out her MySpace page here. Sounds pretty good. Not sold on the un-neccessary cussing though...

We Satellites

Electrico is launching its 3rd album We Satellites at Zouk tomorrow, 10pm. You can check out one of the tunes at their official site here. Quite the nice. I rikes...

The Lard Brothers part 30 (I think)

We are officially 80 - 85% done with the album. Weiyuan just sent the final fixes for 3 more songs. The album artwork is almost done (It's something simple anyway)... We only have the 2 collaborations with the hip-hop artists like Freaky Z, Garuda and DJ Ko Flow which are outstanding.

Howzah! 1 more month!!!

Mad About English!

Local documentary about the Chinese learning English. Looks cute.

Toys In The Attic

Check out Robin's band Toys In The Attic here. I love the song 'To Be Loved' which is hosted on their MySpace. (That is still not the preferred version, Robbo!) It's not only because I helped him record and play on the tune, I genuinely like the song. Heh...

But the band name's gotta go man. It sounds like an Aerosmith (which rocks by the way) tribute band...

Plainsunset - Johari Window

The first single off their self-titled album. Subliminally catchy. They look kinda nervous in this though. Hmmm...

Breakbeat Theory - Goldhill (live)

Boey, Kinho and Dougall's band. I think they are the only live drum'n'bass act in Singapore. Great stuff but they need to write songs, instead of jams.

Rainbow no more...

Felicia Chin just moved her blog to wordpress here. Update your RSS feeder.



I know a lot of you guys out there gives a shit about this. After all, she looks damn good in a bikini...

Quantum Of Solace

I'd prolly need to rush out The Lard Brothers' tribute before the movie release in November...

My Bloody Valentine live concert bootleg

Download it here. Thanks, Chee Wai!

Jay-Z - Wonderwall & 99 Problems (live)

From Brooklynvegan

The inquest into The Mysterious Case of the Missing Glastonbury Ticket Sales has taken an ugly turn. Suggestions that festival fatigue, poor weather or hordes of rival festivals have stopped people rushing to buy tickets have been set aside, because apparently Noel Gallagher knows better: it's all Jay-Z's fault.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it," Gallagher said of the choice of Jay-Z as Pyramid Stage headliner along with The Verve and Kings of Leon, possibly alluding to his own attitude to song-writing at the same time. "If you start to break it then people aren't going to go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? Fucking no chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music and even when they throw the odd curve ball in on a Sunday night you go 'Kylie Minogue?' I don't know about it. But I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury, no way man. It's wrong." [Guardian]

So Mr Shawn Carter took the ultimate piss at Gallagher by covering his most famous song 'Wonderwall', a campfire song dated in 1995. Mr Beyonce Knowles followed it up with one of his best tunes '99 Problems', referencing AC/DC's 'Back In Black'. Fucken kick-ass.

Oasis was one of the most boring bands I've ever seen in my life... Jay-Z and The Roots were unstoppable as a live unit.

Diablo 3

Finally! It will be upon us!!! Reason enough to clear one week of leave...

Diablo 2 holds special memory for me as it was the only game which I've ever completed. Hurhurhur... And all my friends were amazed as well. My attention span is damn short...

Yay!

Forest Action Team: 7 down, 6 more to go...

Oh Lawwwwdddd, nooooo...

Even former rock stars need to pay the bills. So they form a reunion and make more money, headlining festivals which they could have never done in the past. 10 years down the road and The Verve, one of my all-time favourite bands, is back.

The first single 'Love Is Noise' can be heard on their MySpace page. Not just they have adopted the Internet, they seemed to have updated their sound a little. They sound a bit like Coldplay from the X&Y album. Singer Richard Ashcroft promised a return to the A Northern Soul and A Storm In Heaven era of their careers. Well, looks like it's not so.

But one thing fo' sure, you can definitely expect to hear Mad Dick ad libbing "Oh Lord, noooo..." or "Oh God, noooo..." in the 3 minute extended outro for all the songs as he is wont to do.

Rock Never Death...

From Nat.

Nuance - Fear Strikes Mankind

Donald's finally releasing something. From what I heard from him, it'll be out in a week or 2. A fellow Mansun fan... Must sapport! But he needs to shave lah...

Lunarin - Icarus Rising (live)

Sounds like a tribute to The Cure!

Thank you!

A big thank you to those who came down on Saturday to catch us live. Thanks!

Have we got some more time?

There's a saying in The Lard Brothers; "I'm not asking for much; all I ask for is a C."

But those puppies look more like G's. Hey, if you throw in a D, you'll get the chords for 'Radio Station' which you can hear our cover here.

As we exclusively work with humans, it was quite surprising that Joe aka the folk troubadour Koff Koff (his excellent stuff can be found here) insisted that he was an android, Android Koyuen, to be precise. Whether he is a Cylon remains to be seen...

Joe rocks cuz he has a fucken amazing voice and he recorded and mixed The Love Experiment in the past. Most importantly, why he rocks is that he has passed me all the sweet, sweet Edison Chen photos earlier this year.



Joe: vocals

Special thanks to Bryan as well. It took the 3 of us (including Weiyuan and me) 3 fucken hours to record the piano bit (not that great to boot). We should have gotten Benita or Joanna to play the goddamned piano! Ah well...

Probably, today we finished up Phorous' 'Shadowgraphs' as the last backing vocalist popped in and sang her bit. Though we try keeping to the 'Strictly Human' policy, sometimes we give some leeway for cyclops...



Inch came in and did her vocals for B-Quartet's 'Shoebox'. Really excellent stuff! Something I guess what you wouldn't hear her do in Allura... yet, I suppose. Should be quite fun when we finish mixing it... I hope!

The One That You Set Free!!!

The Lard Brothers are performing live this Saturday at the Youth Park, opposite Cineleisure. We go onstage at 7pm.

We will be doing all covers. Some are from our upcoming album Forest Action Team or FAT, for short, if you haven't realised that. We will be opening for friends The Freefallers, Zero Sequence and Moods. Helping us out this time are Yeeyong on keyboards, Boey on drums and Biddy (who also sang on our cover of 'Plainsunset') on vocals.

We will be doing 'Plainsunset' fo' sure and 'The Boy From Katong' as well. Still figuring what else to do... Hmm...

Don't break Ian's heart. Come down to catch us if you can make it.



Or he will look at you like that for the rest of your natural life...

Masters Of The Universe

Someone get me the DVD!!!

S.U.P.A.

My man from KL, Alda has been working in a music production house. He and his boss are playing in an electronic outfit s.u.p.a. which you can check it out here. I love the tune 'Take It All' which Melina from Tempered Mental sings on! Take that, Allison Goldfrapp!

Chromeo - Needy Girl

I love this song and video! Any video which starts off with a MicroKorg being switched on gets 10 extra points from me. The talkbox and the over-the-top cheesiness really rock

The Alan Parsons Project - Don't Answer Me

Got it from Robin. Very interesting video. Not too crazy over the song.

The Dark Knight alternate trailer

I Hold A Wish For You...

Friends a s p i d i s t r a f l y (I spelled it like how they would) are releasing their full-length album I Hold A Wish For You very soon! I'm verifying if it's the next Friday. I is very excited!

Check out some tunes here and the revamped website here.

Is this really necessary?

Now seriously... A remake of the original classic?

(We Are Not) The Boys From Katong

In order to wipe that smirk off our faces, please click here. Our cover of Serenaide's 'The Girl From Katong' was very graciously helped by the following human beings (or at least, the last time we checked... they were not Cylons).



Dewi-marie: vocals



Adam: drums



Bryan: outro guitar solo

We tried to squeeze the line "I'm not the girl from Bukit Batok" in but Bukit Batok (Dewi happens to be Weiyuan's next-block neighbour) just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as Katong. Sorry to George and Alvin whom we asked but didn't record in the end. We should be uploading our cover of The Padres' 'Radio Station' next week.

Nude played by machines

Yup, from Benita again. Machines playing Radiohead's 'Nude'.

Choose Your Own Adventure... YouTube-style

Got this from Benita who trolls the Internet way too much. This is like those gamebook when you played in your younger days but... YouTube style! Click here to play. The video on top is just the introductory one.

Allura - Wake Up And Smell The Seaweed

Can you smell the new sound of the youthful underground?

Recorded at Snakeweed Acoustic Lab by Leonard Soosay and mastered at Scott Hull Mastering, NYC, USA by Scott Hull, this EP is a collection of songs which captures the high-octane live performance of the youthful band. It is a celebration of one of the hottest emerging young acts in Singapore.

Rocking and refreshing, Allura’s debut EP is a tantalising taste of bigger things to come. From the word go, Allura draws you into their world of up-tempo rock with the opening ‘Liberty with Wings’. The rest of the ride is a riot punctuated by the mood inducing ‘Gamajazillion’ and finally ending with the stadium-rousing anthem of ‘Ladeda’. Wake Up And Smell The Seaweed will suck you into the whirlpool of youthful vibrancy, with the almost pixie-like quality of front woman Inch Chua, flanked delicately by the furious but precise guitar stabs of guitarists Aaron Wong and Mark John and supported by the explosive rhythm machine of Low Han Quan and punchy bass growl of Matthew Yap.

The EP defies any attempts to be submerged into the depths of boring rock. Uplifting and emotionally addictive, their debut outing delivers candy-sweet pop melodies and, leaving the listener craving for more.

Wake Up And Smell The Seaweed will be released on 7 June to coincide with the band’s performance at Rock The Sub 2008.

The track listing is as follows:

1) Liberty With Wings
2) Sangwich
3) Gamajazillion
4) Closure
5) Limbo
6) Ladeda

Buy! Buy! The package very nice! Well, if not, someone is going to get hurt a real bad...

I <3 Björk

My all-time favourite Björk songs in the exact order.

1. Bachelorette



2. Hyper-ballad (live)



3. Pagan Poetry (live)

Tropic Thunder viral video

Funny like fuck! Got it from Benita.

The Lard Brothers part 28

Alright, we had some Bailey's yesterday during recording and decided to follow Victoria's advice. We will be dropping Forest Action Team on National Day, Saturday 9 August 2008. If that information actually does something for you guys...

We decided to drop some tracks from the original 14 and add some new tracks. It will be available as a free download or a pay-as-you-like format with all proceeds going to charity. We are exploring how we can do that. It will be complete with an album cover and proper CD booklet and all. In pdf format. I wonder if this applies to us since the majority of the songs are covers.

In any case, we will be putting up some songs which we have recorded on our Facebook page and MySpace page within the next 2 weeks. Hopefully, that's cool cuz' we make music for you to make babies to...

We have 2 more tunes yet to be recorded. 9 more weeks to go...

Majulah Singapura.

Marvel...

Got this from Joe. Very nice.

The Commodores - Machine Gun

Got it from Robin. Lionel Ritchie was the bomb man!

The Roots - Get Busy

I fucken love The Roots! This is from their latest album Rising Down.

The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For You (live)

A side project for Alex Turner of Artic Monkeys and Miles Kane of The Rascals. Sometimes, I prefer these artistes in their side projects than in their main bands such as The Postal Service (Sorry, Vicki, not a Death Cab fan but I love Dntel)...

Tropic Thunder

Looks damn good to me...

Meifumadō

The Road to Hell.

Finally, after all these years, I found about the ending of the classic Japanese manga, Lone Wolf & Cub. I <3 Wikipedia.

Plainsunset

The veteran punk-rock band releases their self-titled 4th album Plainsunset today. Out in all shops. I love 'The River Song'! Sounds like Concave Scream! Check out some of the songs here.

Weezer - Pork And Beans

Pretty cute video. Single from the upcoming album.

The Lard Brothers part 27

Much love goes to Adam for helping us to record live drums for 'Enemy' and 'The Boy From Katong'!

Fwaaahhhh!!!

I haven't seen Max's design for the Novak EP. Given his Anglophiliac tendencies, it's not too surprising he plonked the whole thing with the Union Jack. To hear the EP, pop by his Friendster profile here. The song is right at the bottom of the page.

He posted the lyrics online as well. You can sing along if you want to... -_-"

The Lard Brothers part 26

Recently, we are trying to finish up all the tunes we have at hand. We are still left with the 'Shoebox', 'Black Maria' covers and the rap track. Then we will release all 14 songs online. Hopefully, somewhere in August. But don't hold your breath for it!

So we've decided to plan ahead for the new project: a tribute to the movies, comics, TV series, anime and manga we love. All those lovely geeky stuff...

Here's our recent e-mail conversation. I came up with the first 3 and Ian the following 3. And Weiyuan the last.

1) "Quantum Of Solace" - James Bond (which we have started work with Max)
2) "So Say We All/ I'm Not A Frackin' Cylon!" - Battlestar Galactica
3) "I'm Such A Wimp..." - Neon Evangelion
4) "Where Seagulls Fly And Coloured Clouds Float" - Qiong Yao
5) "I Have Got A Giant Sword (And I Know How To Use It)" - inspired by
Berzerk and those cheesy HK kungfu comics Willy likes to read. 80s style,
hence the title.
6) "Where Oh Where Did My Techno Go?" - a lament mourning the
disappearance of techno clubs. I will approach Bryan to help me with
lyrics ;)
7) "Rebond Da Hair And Climb Out Of Da Telly" - a tribute to all mind fuckin horror movies

Please note the 4th idea is very, very serious. We cannot even begin to explain how serious we are about doing a tribute to Qiong Yao or 琼瑶. All 3 of us grew up watching crappy Taiwanese drama weepies in the 80's, wondering who the fuck can actually write such crap.

And yes, it's her. And she's got her own Wiki entry as well.

"This Is Rock'n'Roll..."

Thanks, Benita.

The Cure - The Only One

New single.

Help required

Got this from my colleague who got this from his friend. It's really quite heart-wrenching...

If anyone of you regularly donate blood, haven't been to Cambodia/ Laos/Myanmar or rural Vietnam in the last few months, not on medication, haven't lived in UK during the mad cow disease period, healthy and are Blood Type: B+, pls let me know if you can donate your blood/ platelets to my niece, Jillian. She's 2 years old and has cancer.

After every chemo cycle, she typically needs blood transfusion and platelets transfusion. Platelets can only last for 5 days and we are hoping to compile a list of willing donors (name, ic and contact no) which we can contact when needed will be helpful.

The blog which her mum has set up for her is here. Do help out if you can.

The Lard Brothers part 25

Ian

Truly, he is the consummate cam whore...

The Incredible Hulk Trailer 3

It's re-cut to be like an action flick. The orchestral strains at the end of the trailer sounds like 'The Lonely Man Theme' from the Bill Bixby-Lou Ferrigno's 70's 'The Incredible Hulk' TV series. You can download the tune here.

Portishead - To Kill A Dead Man

When you are at the start of your career, it's hard to get a break. Especially when one of your pet projects/ ambitions is to score soundtracks. Even more so when music critics mentioned that your music is cinematic and all. So what do you do? You get your entire posse together to shoot your own experimental (read: wanky) short film complete with bad acting from everyone and score your own film!

In 1994, Portishead did just that. The soundtrack is great! Beth Gibbons and Geoff Barlow (the founders of the band) look damn stiff in it. Hehehe...

But I guess if given the equipment, I'd do something like this since I doubt anyone would let me score their short/ film...

Homeless James Bond

Got this from Chee Ken. Cute...

The Lard Brothers part 24

Biddy swung by on Monday night and did her vocals for the Plainsunset cover 'Plainsunset'. We loved her rendition quite a bit. I think we should be getting Sujin to follow her. This is supposed to be a duet but we see how it goes.

Ian is coming in tomorrow to finish up the bass for this. We had major problems when Robin was tracking the bass. There were immense electrical noises. Ah well, just our luck. But I guess he's helping us on some other tunes.

Hmm... part 23

Benita sent me this link. I love it!!! Absolutely trashy and useless!!!

Hmm... part 22

Benita sent me this link. Of David Gan's blog.

It's hilarious. Seriously. Though I reckon it's probably ghostwritten since he is illiterate apparently just a couple of years ago.

But this picture of Jacelyn Tay on the blog is fucken fierce.

Quantum Of Solace

Was hanging out with Max for the weekend. This is the longest stretch of time I've seen his ass for a while. So, the two of us were listening to his The Best Of James Bond Theme Songs compilation while driving around Sim Lim Square yesterday. We found a nice steamboat place near Arab Street.

Anyway, being the idiots we are, we came up with this idea.

I love Mark Ronson. He adores Amy Winehouse. Initially, the both of them were tasked to write the theme song for the new James Bond movie 'Quantum Of Solace'. However, due to Miss Winehouse's perennial alcohol and drug abuse problems hindering the recording process, they are taken off the project.

Well, the two of us decided that we will give it a go to write the 'Quantum Of Solace' theme song. We will keep it old skool just like what Ronson and Winehouse would have done. Not that we would ever give them a run for their money. But hey, middle-aged, single men like us should have something to do to occupy our time eh?

But what the fuck is a 'Quantum Of Solace' exactly? Wiki here.

Chris Cornell - You Know My Name



From the really great 'Casino Royale', this is really the suckiest Bond theme song EVER! Even Sheryl Crow and Garbage were better. Yeah, even Paul McCartney did a hell of a good job.

Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever



I <3 this song. If it's good enough for Kanye West to sample, it's good enough for me. If there's ever a reason why the Propellerheads worked with her, this is probably it.

One of the comments on YouTube: 1973: "Diamonds Are Forever" was released as a single in 1972 and the Movie came out in 1971. This 1973 Performance just may be the first time Shirley has performed this on Video. It is interesting how she has changed her singing style of this song over the years.

Food blog

Edwin started a new blog with 2 of his many interests in life: food and beer. Trust me. He has loads of hobbies.

The new blog probably explains his girth. Hurhurhur...

He has a couple of receipes up on the site. That's one thing in my life I've yet to do: Learn how to cook. Since this is the year of "attempted major changes" in my life, I probably should try that sooner or later.

Connie Talbot

Such a cute little girl! That toothless smile is way too adorable...

Fun for everyone...

Joining the fray of giving away free albums slightly later is industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails with the ambient experiment Ghosts early this year. Overtly beefy curmedgeon Trent Reznor just released another one, The Slip. Download it here for free.

I've signed up with the website which allows you to download stems/ multi-tracks for free so that you can muck around and remix the songs. For FREE! So fuck you, Radiohead!!!

Well, I'm just glad I'll be able to say that to them in October when I go up to Tokyo to catch them live. A single "FUCK YOU!!!" amongst tens of thousands of screaming fans screaming in incomprehensible Engrish or Japlish. Should be fun!

The final trailer...

The Dark Knight.

If you watch carefully, in the scene which Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent is holding a pistol, pause the clip.

Is it me or there is some slightly scarring on the left side of the face which is hidden away? Heh.

Getting my mojo back...

Thanks to Max, I've been finally been getting my ass to using the new laptop to record some stuff.

If you know Max like I do, his job brief was "I'm going to write some pussy-melting songs."

Yeah, ermm... okay.

So he sends me some demos. The Lard Brothers are helping him flesh out the tracks. We hope they can help him melt some pussies or particularly, one. I guess, you'll be hearing the songs on a MySpace page pretty soon.

Andriod Koyuen

Joe just informed me that he uploaded some new tracks for his Android Koyuen project. Basically, it's him doing some weird-ass singing. There's this thing which he has apparently mastered: throat singing.

I've still no idea what the hell that is. Check it out here.

Spiritualized - Soul On Fire

Got it from Billy. Doesn't sound anything different from the last album I got: Let It Come Down, not Amazing Grace. Actually, his musical connection/ similarity with the Britpop/ Britrock bands of frontman Jason Pierce's era is pretty strong. I guess the only thing which makes him more indie was the fact that he was probably the weakest singer (if even considered one) out there.

Weird-ass Japanese video

Got this from Inch.

My life is defined by my electronic devices...

It's all very good that all the essential electronic devices I use break down on me. All in the single month (give or take). So say hello to the replacements.



Acer Aspire. Not exactly the sexiest looking thing around but functionality over aesthetics. I need to run my VSTis and I need to run a lotta them at a go.



Creative Zen. I was informed to get this over an Apple iPod. In terms of value, this is cheaper definitely and I need the storage space. However, all the mp3s need to be tagged before they can be read by the Zen. So guess where do I tag my mp3s?

i-Tunes. Yeah, the fucken irony of it all...



HTC Touch Dual. I think my colleagues use this one better than I do! Still getting used to it. I might not have your numbers yet as I've MANUALLY transferring the numbers into this new phone. Will take some time.



Unfortunately, I just realised my Electro-Harmonix Small Clone has broken down on me earlier this year. Please get me a replacement if you can.



M-Audio Axiom-61. After Bryan, Weiyuan and I (yeah, it took 3 of us and 2 hours to cover all the parts) recorded the 'Radio Station' cover a few days back, it's no looking back. Seriously, why would anyone want a 25-key MIDI controller? Or for that matter-of-fact, even a 49-key one?

Okay, a Mini Moog and Micro Korg is different. But we are talking MIDI controllers here. Check out that baby on top. I salivate looking at that picture. That picture of the MIDI controller and the H.A.I.R. of the month. Oooohhh, nice...

Spanking The Monkey One Last Time so that we can start Choking The Chicken

Weiyuan who slutted his way into Bryan and Yeeyong's sound-art project tb.fk.as so he will be performing this Saturday as the newest member of the "geng". They are up against Darren (aka Sonicbrat). So that should be quite interesting. Nat will be guesting with WYMXX which is Terence and his laptop running some plug-ins with nekkid women as the display graphics. No, I'm not shitting you. Ask him. Apparently, Nat is going to play the accordian. No, once again, I'm not shitting you.

Come 17 May, Adam and his peeps from You And Whose Army? will be performing with their side project Indus Gendi. Kinho's Breakbeat Theory will be doing their live drum'n'bass schtick. Not sure if Dougall will be bringing his home-made synth though. Haykal will be going at it solo this time round. I'm not too sure what he'd be doing but knowing him, it'd be probably something weird. Dakai and Iliyas of Documentary In Amber will be performing with Hakim as D+A+K+A+I (Dakai and (Ha)Kim and Iliyas). I love the name. Pure genius.

Come down if you are free. This would probably be our last show for a long time.

Kanye & Li Wei

Was going through Kanye West's (You rock, dude!) blog and found this series of photos. Apparently, a Chinese artist by the name of Li Wei took them. Trippy shit.







This is Li Wei's official site.

Telebury

One of my favourite Malaysian bands. I had the good fortune to work with them on 2 separate occasions. I just found out that they have a new song on their MySpace page here from Adlin's blog. Well, Adlin used to play in Telebury for a while. Then again, he went through half the KL scene. Quite the band slut, he is.

Weiyuan and Billy love Telebury to bits, especially 'Godspeed Your Love' which is really great...

I AM IRON MAN!!!

Next Wednesday!!! Woo hooo!!!!

Portishead in Portishead

One of my all-time favourite bands Portishead (One of my guitar heroes Adrian Utley and favourite drummers Clive Deemer play in the band) performs in the town of Portishead. The new album is coming out soon. I've already gotten it... somehow... ahem. But I will be buying it anyway. Still not feeling it though.