wish I wrote that #3

Some things you do really make me mad I must confess
The way the street light silhouettes your thighs inside your dress

-'Down Boys' (Warrant, 1989)
written by Jani Lane

I just think that's sexy as hell!

ego blockage

Saw this comment when I was watching this video. Thought it was hilarious! Didn't know it was some kind of disorder.


Very common affliction. It's called "ego blockage." It's when a singer gets so full of him/herself so that they can't possibly sing a song anywhere near the way it originally went. Symptoms include: talking the song, long pauses followed by quickly running lyrics together, dropping the octave, fill-ins like "Ow!", "Yeah!", "C'mon!", and in extreme cases, a complete refusal to sing the song, by holding the microphone towards the audience and saying, "you know the words to the song, YOU sing!"

nightmare

Just woke up from a dream that I was at Steve Vai's funeral. It looked like a nighttime campfire in a Malaysian field and as he was buried, 'Every Rose Has It's Thorn' by Poison was playing. Later at the funeral, for some reason I was air guitaring Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets', and I started to breakdown! Thinking why have God taken away such a great talent. And that's when I woke up.

Don't have sweet chilli chicken before bed. And hope you're ok Steve!

Debbie Gibson - Who Loves Ya Baby?

I can't remember what got me to listen to Electric Youth (1989) recently. The first track of this album is such a beautiful pop song that I am officially hooked! I love those super-produced sounds of the 80s, and Debbie Gibson is a prime example of polished dance-pop confectionery. The homerun for me however is that - cliche I know - I can relate to the lyrics. The idealistic, calmness and cheer in Debbie's voice is perfect for the message of this song:  'You might think you're facing the world alone, but I, and others around you will always be by your side'. Favorite lyric: Just a smile is alright, don't owe me anything.

I had to share this song but on Youtube there are only live versions, so I uploaded one myself. With nice pictures of Debbie :)

Oh yeah. also check out the rest of this amazing album!

Girlfriend

The other day Hank from Ealing Studios, whom we did Hana Piranha's album last year with rang me out of the blue. He asked if I would be up for helping a band he's recording called Girlfriend with their songs and while I naturally would jump at the opportunity of a musical project, it really matters whether or not I like the music I'm working with. So I checked out the band's Soundcloud and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they are power-poppy! The melodies are sweet as candy and even though the songs are a bit rough,  they definitely have character.
I met 2/3 of the band today, and helped on two songs by each of them. There are some raw talent there and I can see them going places and all they'd need to do is just keep going. I would tell them to listen to the following artists for ideas and inspiration:

• Sahara Hotnights
• Belinda Carlisle
• The Tuesdays
• Weezer
• everything else 

I'm glad and flattered they wanted to work with me and hopefully we'll teach each other a thing or two.

Swedish bands

I've always wondered if it's a coincidence that some of my favorite bands are Swedish. The great Per Gessle of Roxette, my pop idols, shed some light on this mystery:

The musical legacy we have here in Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden, is very much folk music.
It is a very clear style of music that has been going on for centuries -- very beautiful, with strong melodies, and sad.

Read the article here.

Bands I was obsessed with who happened to be Swedish:

 

Roxette

 Sahara Hotnights

The Tuesdays

 

The Cardigans

 

Tommy 16

Me and My Old Offspring

Finally got to see The Offspring! If it wasn't for these guys, I wouldn't be here writing in a music blog, I don't think. Here's my Offspring timeline:

1995: Age 10, heard 'Smash It Up' (The Damned cover) in the movie Batman Forever. Didn't know the band, but thought it was a really cool song in the background when Robin was fighting the bad guys with blacklights and glow-in-the-dark facepaints.

1995/96: Heard 'Come Out And Play' in the car. I think it was in Seksyen 6 in Bangi where I grew up. I was like what's this band and my sister most probably, told me its The Offspring.

1998: Heard 'All I Want' on MTV and some skateboarding montage video on ESPN. Didn't notice or know what band it was. Loved the song.

Late 1998: 'Pretty Fly For A White Guy' came on the radio. Thought it was the craziest catchiest song ever.

Early 1999: Listened to the guy behind my house playing his drums to 'Pretty Fly' followed by 'The Kids Aren't Alright'. I straight away went out to get the album 'Americana'.

1999: Guy from school named Faiz lent me 'Ixnay on the Hombre' on cassette. It was all over. I was known as 'the Offspring guy'.  'All I Want' is on this album.

Late 1999: Went to England to visit my Aunt and cousins. Bought 'Smash'.

2000: Learned about a little musical genre called 'punk rock'.

2001: Bought 'Conspiracy of One' as soon as it came out. Taped 'Offspring Live in Wembley' from Channel V. Watched it everyday. Started drawing the long haired, backwards cap, thick-framed glasses 1994 version of 'Noodles' character everywhere. Have picture of Noodles as the cover of my notebook.


2002: Girlfriend saw them in Tokyo on my behalf. Jealous but happy one of us got to see them.

(Fast forward 10 years of 'hmmm maybe' albums, and me broadening my taste in music :P)

2012: My first Offspring show. Got within 2 feet of Noodles.

Live: The Offspring @ Shepherds Bush Empire 6/6/12

Finally saw The Offspring! It's been a long long time coming. I LOVE LONDON! Alright lets get to it.

Opening act. Don't know their name. Not really into their music (indie whatever). They got cool hair though and nice jackets. Seem like hard working/rocking guys so I could appreciate whatever they were doing. Too bad the crowd chanted 'Offspring! Offspring!' in the middle of their set.

When The Offspring came out Dexter said they were gonna play Ignition. Pretty cool that they played that whole album but too bad I never really got into that one! I was a huge fan of ''Kick Him When He's Down' so that was cool. I recognized the rest of em at the show but didn't know the words :(
In the middle of this set there was a strong weed smell which I thought was hilarious. I was 10 feet away from Noodles and he said 'someone out there got good pot'.

After the Ignition set was done they announced that they'd be back in 10 minutes. The house music and lights were back on and it was quite weird. My friend Juan Pablo was quite amused by how old Noodles looked and his beer gut against his low hanging guitar. I said they might need the 10 minutes for him to take a nap.

Real set begins with 'Bad Habit'. This time they had the light show going as well. I sorta predicted the set which had the usual (I've been watching Offspring live videos for years) like 'Bad Habit', 'Pretty Fly' etc. 'Elder' from their first, self-titled album , and a couple new songs from their latest called Days Go By. Nothing from Conspiracy and Splinter.

Best moment of the night for me was when Noodles picked up a sign from someone in the crowd which said 'Don't Play Mota' (hahaha) and he said usually they get request for songs to be played, not the opposite! At this point I was PRAYING they would play it and without even having a band discussion on whether to play it or not, drummer Pete Parada played the famous drum intro and I basically lost all coherent thoughts. I remember starting a debate on this video on Youtube over who's saying 'Mota' in the live shows. It was Noodles.

Encore: There wasn't any. No conventional one anyway. Dexter said 'We'll be back in 2 minutes'. Haha.

All in all, it was definitely a dream come true! Been wanting to go to an Offspring concert since 1999 and now I have seen my pop-punk idols, within touching distance too. I could do without the Ignition setlist, and have more of a varied setlist from their catalog, but that just means I'll have to see them again. Soon I hope.

Setlist:

Ignition:
Session
We Are One
Kick Him When He's Down
Take It Like a Man
Get It Right
Dirty Magic
Hypodermic
Burn It Up
No Hero
L.A.P.D.
Nothing From Something
Forever and a Day

Main set:
Bad Habit
Elders
All I Want
You're Gonna Go Far, Kid
Days Go By
Come Out and Play
Mota
The Future Is Now
Staring at the Sun

Encore:
Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)
The Kids Aren't Alright
Self Esteem

balls

So last year, we were listening to Chixdiggit (probably whilst playing Pro Evo 6 on ps2, as we do) and it was the song 'I Remember You'. In the chorus where they sang '...you got good at rolling your eyes' I hilariously changed the word 'eyes' to 'balls', and Ben thought it was the funniest thing in the world and started singing it that way. When we saw Chixdiggit live at the Relentless Garage, as you'd expect we acknowledged each other and sang our version when they played the song.

Now a year later, every last word of every line of every song has been replaced with 'balls'. Here's an example, using Warrant's 'You're The Only Hell Your Mama Ever Raised' from their album Cherry Pie (1990). We actually sang this out loud and without even planning it, we both replaced the same words with, well, 'balls'.

Your the only balls your mama ever raised  
Tried to tell balls but you've got to do things your own way
(Your own baaaaaaaaaaaaaalls)
  
Try it yourself!

Oh but this joke has actually evolved. Not only does it not make sense anymore (ain't lookin' for nothin', but a good balls), now we even do it to guitar riffs and other musical elements. Both me and Ben think this is now getting out of hand and can't wait for this thing to stop being funny.

song that saved my life

Last year I helped Jenny out with her project about music therapy. She had an awesome blog, and this was my entry. Check it out, son.

P/s: I studied Contemporary MEDIA Practice but hey.

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

LCDD.

For Zaruf Ezhan, a musician studying Contemporary Music Practice, LCDD by TommyHeavenly6 has not only inspired him musically but has also saved his life.

"I'd been playing guitar for years and was just playing in cover bands... and I love so many different types music. At the same time I had a really bad year and was feeling down and I heard this song, and I checked out the singer's other band its called 'The Brilliant Green'. They have great melodic pop songs, and I realized that I have a big fondness for pop melodies, and I love simple 3 chord progression songs cos I'm a huge punk rock fan AND I love 90s sounding, happy melody lines and the combination of these elements - is the type of music that I want to make. It made me realize things about me that I didn't know as well. I'm not sad, I'm not political and I'm not out there to save the world, it's just about having fun and doing what you love. So I've made my life's goal now to make good, upbeat music that's played with passion - so you can tell a lot of thought has gone into writing the songs (which is something I think is lacking these days)!!

So basically that song, and 'The Brilliant Green', are just great music with sweet sweet melodies that have really lifted me up when I was in a bad period of my life. They showed me who I was artistically, and it has also given myself something to reach for in the world. So it saved my life both literally and metaphorically."

I'd never heard of this before, but it's a cool song!

Check it out :)!

Thankyou Zaruf for sharing your song :)

wish I wrote that... #2

You say your love is bonafide
But that don't coincide
With the things that you do

- 'Cruel To Be Kind' (Nick Lowe - 1979)
written by Lowe and Ian Gomm

I know 'bonafide' and 'coincide' rhyme. I just wish I used these words in my everyday vocab.

wish I wrote that... #1

And we'll linger on
Time can't erase a feeling this strong
No way you're never gonna shake me
Ooh darling 'cause you'll always be my baby

- 'Always Be My Baby' (Mariah Carey, 1996)
written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal

When I first noticed these first two lines, I was actually quite surprised that I never realized how amazing the words are after all this time. Sorry Ms. Carey but I never thought your songs could have such profound lyrics! :) I love anything that's upbeat, and a breakup song sang full of hope and optimism? Awesome.