WTF OMGMT NO BOOZE?

So... MGMT was here last week.
We went, we saw, and I complained like hell.
My memory of the thing is a bit hazy (yeah it was THAT memorable), so I'm gonna write this with a little help from my tweets from that night...

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• MGMT is hipster central.
• You may think you look hensem gila, but wearing sunglasses in a dark concert arena only makes you look bodoh gila.
• I'm getting too old for this shit.
• Really hope they play Kids early so all the kids leave early. Haha.

I actually felt like an old hippie amongst all the hipster kids walking around the area. Sigh....

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• No way they'll start soon. Half the crowd still outside the ONLY entrance, waiting to be body checked to get in. Stupid stupid stupid.

I got there at about 8pm because I was afraid there'd be no parking. Turns out I shouldn't have worried. Managed to find a nice parking spot at the Securities Commission and walked down to join the crowd waiting outside. After 1 hour of waiting for the line to go shorter (to no avail), we decided to join in, managing to get in just in time for...

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• Finally got in in time for opening act Kyoto Protocol!
• Kyoto Protocol are pretty damn good!
• Good stuff, @FuadKyoto! I await the release of your record! Hehe

This was the first time I've heard them, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Kyoto Protocol's music. Their tunes managed to catch my ear on the first listen, and one song (not sure which one) was a great mix of blues rock and indie rock, which somehow worked really well. I'm definitely checking out their LP when it comes out!

Then, it was time for the main event!

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• Finally! MGMT is coming on!!!!
• Flash Delirium!!!
• Oh dear. The sound isn't very good, is it? #MGMT

The band kicked off with Flash Delirium, probably my favorite from the Congratulations album, and the first single off it. Unfortunately, the crowd didn't seem to respond to the song very well, which only proved that most of the crowd were only there to hear three songs, two of which were...

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• Electric Feel! Probably one of only three songs most people know here judging from the reaction to the previous Congratulations songs haha
• No need to pretend anymore, it's Time To Pretend!
• Songs from Congratulations not getting much love from the crowd at #MGMTKL...

Like I said, most of the crowd only came alive during the three biggest songs of the night (as well as some of the Oracular Spectacular album) and they didn't show much response when the band played the songs from the Congratulations album. This was probably because that album is a lot more abstract and psychedelic than Oracular Spectacular.

Which brings me to my BIGGEST peeve of the night....

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• Definitely need beer for this sort of concert lar.
• I want beeeer. Going for a psychedelic indie rock concert without booze just doesn't seem right somehow...

NO BOOZE. NO BEER, NOT A SINGLE DROP OF ALCOHOL. If there was any concert that NEEDED some alcohol to get the crowd going, it was this one. COME ONE, how the hell are people supposed to enjoy 12-minute, trippy, psychedelic rock song like Siberian Breaks WITHOUT being at least a LITTLE high?

Speaking of which...

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• Ok, i really hope they don't spend 15 minutes playing the entire Siberian Breaks later...
• Oh man, they ARE playing Siberian Breaks now. Now THIS is a song you DEFINITELY need booze to enjoy properly...

Yeah. They played Siberian Breaks. That super-long, super-trippy, song from Congratulations. It's a damn fine song on its own, but listening to it live in a concert, without a single drop of booze, was just a little too much to take.

Thank god then, for....

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• I think they need to play Kids after this to wake everyone up....
• What did I tell ya??!!?? KIDS NOW!!!!!!

As soon as they finished Siberian Breaks, they went straight into Kids. And predictably, everyone got up (yeah we were all sitting down hahaha) and jumped around a lot. Hey, it's Kids. Something about that synth riff just makes you wanna jump around like a kid. heh heh.

And after that song, it was winding down time...

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• Winding down with Congratulations now. People started leaving right after Kids...
• Last song oledi?? why no Brian Eno??!!??

Yup, the last song was Congratulations. I don't know what else they played for the encore, because I left right after Kids. Yeah, I ain't a Kid anymore. I was way too tired already hahaha.

And to sum it all up:

• MGMT was slightly disappointing. Note to self, get a little drunk first, next time.

So, one concert down. I'm hoping Jimmy Eat World will be MUCH better later this week! WHEE!

Best of 2010: My Favorite Music!

Here we are again at the end of another year! And it's time for the year end lists again...

Let's start off with music, shall we? Here's my personal list of favorite music this year. And might I stress, these are MY personal favorites, so of course it's gonna be a bit bias (and have a few dodgy choices as well...) ... heh heh...

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Favorite Albums of 2010

1. High Violet (The National)
2. Write About Love (Belle And Sebastian)
3. The Suburbs (Arcade Fire)
4. The Place We Ran From (Tired Pony)
5. Invented (Jimmy Eat World)
6. Covers (Mates Of State)
7. Plastic Beach (Gorillaz)
8. Come Around Sundown (Kings of Leon)
   
9. American Slang (The Gaslight Anthem)

Honorary Mentions:

• Congratulations (MGMT)
• Forgiveness Rock Record (Broken Social Scene)
• Go (Jónsi)
• Halycon Digest (Deerhunter)
  
• Head First (Goldfrapp)
• Heaven Is Whenever (The Hold Steady)
• If I Had A Hi-Fi (Nada Surf)
• One Life Stand (Hot Chip)
• Postcards From A Young Man (Manic Street Preachers)
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World OST (various artistes)
  
• Shadows (Teenage Fanclub)
• Slash (Slash)
• The Age of ADZ (Sufjan Stevens)
  
• The Sea (Corinne Bailey Rae)
• This Is Happening (LCD Soundsystem)
• TRON Legacy OST (Daft Punk)

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Favorite Songs of 2010

1. Afraid Of Everyone (The National)
2. The Heart Is Hard To Find (Jimmy Eat World)
3. Vandelylle Crybaby Geeks (The National)
4. Write About Love (Belle & Sebastian)
5. Ready To Start (Arcade Fire)
6. On Melancholy Hill (Gorillaz)
7. Runaway (The National)
8. TRON: End Titles (Daft Punk)
9. Bloodbuzz Ohio (The National)
10. Mixtape (Jimmy Eat World)
11. I Am A Landslide (Tired Pony)
12. Pyro (Kings Of Leon)
13. Slush (Hot Chip)
14. Black Sheep (Metric)
15. Na Na Na (My Chemical Romance)
16. Son Et Lumiere (Mates of State)
17. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John (Belle & Sebastian)
18. Alive (Goldfrapp)
19. Rococo (Arcade Fire)
20. Flash Delirium (MGMT)
21. World Sick (Broken Social Scene)
22. Sing (My Chemical Romance)
23. American Slang (Gaslight Anthem)
24. Month Of May (Arcade Fire)
25. Cut (Jimmy Eat World)

Honorable Mentions:

• 17 Pink Sugar Elephants (Mates of State)
• All To All (Broken Social Scene)
• Animal Arithmetic (Jónsi)
• Arcadia (Ash)
• Boy Lilikoi (Jónsi)
• Brothers (Hot Chip)
  
• Coda: A Burn Scar in the Shape of the Sooner State (Los Campesinos!)
• Congratulations (MGMT)
• Drunk Girls (LCD Soundsystem)
• Electrocution (Nada Surf)
• Garbage Truck (Sex Bob-Omb)
• Get on the Road (Tired Pony)
  
• Go Do (Jónsi)
• I Didn't See It Coming (Belle & Sebastian)
  
• Just A Face In The Crowd (Car Crash Hearts)
• Long Way Home (Mates of State)
• M.A.D. (Hadouken!)
• Piano Fights (65daysofstatic)
• Postcards From A Young Man (Manic Street Preachers)
• Rocket (Goldfrapp)
  
• Sleep the Clock Around (Mates of State)
• Stylo (Gorillaz)
• The Spirit Of Jazz (The Gaslight Anthem)
• Was It Something I Said (Brandon Flowers)
• Welcome Wagon (Fang Island)

Flaming Lips Vs. The Attention Whoring Fat Skank

In all the excitement leading up to the wedding, I actually forgot to blog about the awesome Flaming Lips concert in Singapore last month. It was actually one of the best concerts I've been to this year (second only to the kickass Green Day one in January).

Heck, to quote one of the reviews online (I forget which one), it wasn't a concert, it was a PARTY!

But first, the opening act - The Raveonettes:



I actually quite liked the Raveonettes' act, even though there wasn't much interaction between them and the crowd. Their music was pretty good, but it was spoiled by the godawful sound system in the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center.

They played for a whole hour, I think, which is actually almost a full set already. Then, it was time for the main event....

The mood was crazy from the start, when the band members came out from an opening in the middle of the backdrop. But it got MAD when Wayne Coyne got into his space bubble and walked out into the audience!



Here's a video I took while he was er... rolling over us!



(Sorry about my hand blocking Coyne's face. I had to support the balloon or the poor fella would've fallen down on the floor... LOL)

After that, the confetti and giant balloons started to rain down and the party got started!



BTW, see those girls at the side of the stage in the picture above? Well, they were supposed to be partying and making the atmosphere more happening. But there was this one girl... actually more like a attention-whoring skank, who stayed in front of the group, fiddling on her phone ALL NIGHT LONG, showing off to her friends in the crowd, and essentially spoiling the show for the rest of us. All night, I wanted to yell GET OFF THE FUCKING STAGE YOU FAT SKANK!

*breath in, breath out*

Anyway, that Coyne can really put on a show, I'll give you that. The guy was UNSTOPPABLE all night, from the space bubble, to riding piggyback on a bear...



And gurning to the camera parked right in front of his mic...



And my favorite of all... The giant laser hands!




The music? What music? Ok fine, the music was great as well. They sang most of their hits, from She Don't Use Jelly, Do You Realize, The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song... and even a couple from the Soft Bulletin album. Not bad...

Oh, and that Yoshimi Vs. The Pink Robots singalong ranks as one of THE best singalongs I've ever er.. sang along to.

But ultimately, the music seemed secondary to the performance itself. Never mind the music, this was a concert that had to be SEEN rather than heard.

Now, all together now.. HER NAME IS YOSHIMI!!!!

Writing About Write About Love

Sorry about the lack of updates here, I'm on leave preparing for a very very big event (of which I'll blog about later heh heh), and I'm usually too lazy to update the blog when I'm not at work (shhhhh).

Anyway, one of my regrets this year is I had to miss the Belle & Sebastian concert in Singapore in July because one of my friends was getting married on that very same day (she's a big fan of them as well, and was quite upset they scheduled their concert on the same day). I heard it was a great show. Sigh....

The band has a new album out now called Write About Love, and it's one of my personal favorite albums this year. There's just something about the songs in this album that sticks in my head and makes me subconsciously hum or sing the melody, and yet not annoy the heck out of me the way most songs that stick in your head do.

The title track (feat. Carey Mulligan of all people) is just so catchy (especially the chorus that goes "I hate my job, I'm working way too much, everyday I'm stuck in an office"); and so is the opening track I Didn't See It Coming. Calculating Bimbo is a deceptively gentle and tender song with some kickass lyrics, while I'm Not Living in the Real World is just pure joy.

The band also has a duet with Norah Jones on Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John - it's a great song, nice tune and all, but although I like it, somehow it just sounds too Norah Jones-y for me.

Sigh, now I wish I'd gone to see their concert... PLEASE come back, Belle & Sebastian!

Heart That Car Crash

To tell the truth, I never heard of Car Crash Hearts until Elfie (COME BACK ELFIE WE MISS YOU!) started pimping them on her Twitter, asking us to vote for them in some contest. Then when we met up one day, she passed me a CD and told me to "Say nice things about them OKAAAAY!" in the sort of non-threatening tone that suggests that she will burn my house down and drink all my booze if I didn't. :-p

But I DO have nice things to say about this EP. I never heard of the Car Crash Hearts (BTW, did they name themselves after a FALL OUT BOY song? Oh dear...) before listening to this, and I have to say the band actually does sound promising.

Of the three English songs, Just A Face In The Crowd - is probably the most memorable; while the slower Sometimes I Wonder is not bad either. Go! is ok, though I have to say the vocals were a bit raw in that one...

Surprisingly, I actually liked the the Malay songs more here, especially Rahsia and Kawan; which go a long way to showing that Malay rock music doesn't have to be all jiwang or rempit rock. I'm guessing they'd be pretty awesome live, BTW. :D

The EP should be out already, though I'm not sure where you can get them. Rock Records, maybe? Or you can just go ask them yourselves on MySpace, Facebook or Twitter!

Support local music yo!

The National On a High

I know I know, High Violet ain't officially out till next week. But trust me when I say I will ABSOLUTELY buy the CD for this album the SECOND I see it on the racks. Yes, it's that good.

You can download the first single Bloodbuzz Ohio from the official site HERE. It sounds a bit like Squalor Victoria from Boxer, but give it time to grow on you. The rest of the album is also like that - at first you'll hear snippets from songs you like, then as you keep listening to it, the whole album comes together gloriously.

My favorite songs on the album? The slow-burning Runaway, Afraid of Everyone (even the "soul soul soul soul soul soul" part in the end), Bloodbuzz Ohio (I couldn't get the sentence "I still owe money, to the money, to the money I owe" out of my head for ages), Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks (sweet and uplifting at the same time) and Terrible Love. The rest are good as well, but these are the songs that really stood out for me.

This is one of those albums that I can just play on loop the entire day, like Boxer & The Xx's XX; and not get even a little bit tired of it. Both are albums where the tone of the lead singers are relatively low, so you don't have to scream to sing along to the songs, and yet, they have a hypnotic effect on you that induces you to hum along to the songs even if you don't know the lyrics. Sometimes unconsciously as well (I got quite a few strange looks from colleagues doing this in the office...)

Ok, if there is a complaint I have about it, it's that it sounds very much like their previous albums Alligator and Boxer. In fact, if you put them all in the same playlist and shuffle through them one by one, it sounds like one LOOONG but AWESOME album. No complaints there actually...

PS: After the chore that was the last 'Track By Track Music Review', I decided to sod it all and just focus on writing what I think of the album. Easier leh.

XX Marks The Florence

Those gorgeous guitar lines, the hushed harmonies, and the pounding beats... Live, The XX was an intense experience, their performance everything their album suggests they will be. Problem for me was, they were TOO MUCH like the album.

Reta loved them to bits because it apparently appeals to 'emo kids' like her. Me, I thought it was great, but after the initial thrill of watching them live and hearing the songs live wore off, it got a little monotonous about 5 songs in. Maybe it was because I was watching them from a balcony, seated; not like Reta who was geeking out on the floor standing in front of the stage. Heck, from my seat I was wondering if Oliver was a Na'vi in a past life, especially wearing those short three quarter pants and cradling his little bass guitar in the blue light.

Look, I love their music - the album is an brilliant debut, full of lush, dark and beautiful songs that are downbeat and emo at the same time, and filled some EXCELLENT guitar lines and harmonies. Hearing VCR and Crystalised live was particularly great for me, and so was Islands. But my problem was it just would not justify paying full concert price to watch just them, at least not when they only have one album of material under their belts.

Of course I don't expect them to do a Green Day and bring the roof down, but until they can prove they are not just a one trick pony and come up with more songs and do more on stage besides play their instruments, stare at their shoelaces and hit some cymbals; I'll stick to the album, thank you very much.

In contrast, Florence And The Machine were almost the complete opposite from The XX. Florence herself was bubbly, fun, animated and cute, and when she sang (or rather, SHOUTED most of the time), she was just plain awesome. The XX gets into their music by concentrating ALL their energy and focus into their instruments. Florence Welch gets into HER music by flinging her hair around, dancing and jumping around and even headbanging along with the beats.

My personal favorites were of course, Dog Days Are Over, Kiss With a Fist and the awesome Drumming, though the pounding beats of Hurricane Crush, the soaring Howl and Blinding also stuck in my head long after I left the hall. I never realized that Florence SHOUTS so much on her songs though, but when I listened back to the album, I realised she really DOES shout a lot... on the album it was ok, but it's a little jarring live in a venue like the Esplanade though...

Still, she's bloody cute, and has great legs, so who cares...

All in all, if you were there for just The XX and fell asleep during Florence; or went for Florence but sat in your chair wishing The XX would get on with it, then it may not have been worth the ticket price. But heck, I love BOTH bands, and to me, the whole show was a perfect combination of Ying and Yang: The XX's dark moody music contrasting sharply with Florence And The Machine's wild exuberant energy.

Now bring on Placebo, Kings of Convenience and 65daysofstatic!

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Setlist:

The XX:

1. Intro
2. Crystalised
3. Islands
4. Fantasy
5. Shelter
6. VCR
7. Basic Space
8. Night Time
9. Infinity

Florence And The Machine

1. My Boy Builds Coffins
2. Kiss With A Fist
3. Hurricane Drunk
4. Between Two Lungs
5. Drumming
6. Cosmic Love
7. Blinding
8. I'm Not Calling You A Liar
9. Hospital Bed
10. Howl
11. Dog Days Are Over
12. You've Got The Love
13. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

It's Finally Convenient For Malaysians To Watch the Kings Live!

Ah, finally. After agonising over all the good acts going over to Singapore instead of coming here, we finally have some good news at last.

Yup, the Kings of Convenience are coming to KL!

The news broke on Twilight Actiongirl's Twitter, which said:

Kings of Convenience live in KL, March 21 @ Bentley Music Audiotorium, thanks to the good folks at Soundscape Records .

YAAAAY! Now it will be convenient for us to go watch them now! And At least I don't have to fork out a fortune to go watch them this time. Double YAAAAY!

Their newest album - Declaration of Dependence - is pretty good. A bit predictable at times, and a bit sleep inducing if you're really tired, but it's nice soothing acoustic fare to relax to.

There ARE some gems in there. The Boat Behind is an old favorite from their live shows, Mrs. Cold is nice, and so's 24/25. And interestingly enough, they have a song called Riot on An Empty Street, which is the title of their last album. Will they have a song called Declaration of Dependence in their next album then?

Oh, and unlike their last albums, Declaration of Dependence is actually available in local music stores. I got mine in Rock Corner, and I saw it in Music Valley as well.

PS. Tickets for Singapore's Mosaic Music Festival are also on sale now. So if you wana go catch Dinosaur Jr., 65daysofstatic, St. Vincent and The Go Team in action, you better go get your tickets NOW!

Temper Your Muse With XX Passion Pit. Trippy.

I was going through my music library the other day, and realized that I have WAY too many songs to go through. I mean, for 2009 alone, there are 3000 over songs to listen to, more than four DAYS worth.

Therefore, I've decided that the only way I can go through them was to listen to them one album at a time, and separate them by a specific genre every day. Yeah, I tend to be a bit of a stickler for this kind of organization.

Yesterday, for instance, was a Indie Rock kinda day. So my playlist had the following albums:



The Xx is a brilliant little band. Them, and The Temper Trap are probably my favorite new bands for 2009. Passion Pit is not too bad either, though I found it harder to get into. And Yo La Tengo? Like a friend of mine said, the sum of the age of the three bands mentioned above would still not be as old as Yo La Tengo... And they haven't disappointed yet. Don't dig the 13 minutes songs though, guys...

Today, it's a 90's Rock kinda day.



Pearl Jam's new one Backspacer is pretty decent stuff. Not groundbreaking, but it's still easier to get into than their last one, which I totally don't remember at all. Alice In Chains? Can't really tell yet. I'll tell you when I've heard more of it. Third Eye Blind is decent stuff too, but still a lesser shadow of its Semi-Charmed Life days. Ditto Our Lady Peace. Nothing very memorable, really...

Maybe tomorrow, I'll do a Brit Rock kinda day, since I've got the new Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and Jarvis Cocker mucking around the iPod. Might even throw in a little Mika... ok, maybe not.



Muse's The Resistance is one great album. Matt Bellamy seems to have gone more Freddie Mercury than usual this time round, one song even sounds a bit like Bohemian Rhapsody. Kasabian's songs here actually sound better than they were live, to tell the truth, though I may have been too tired to enjoy them at the MTV World Stage then. Arctic Monkeys? Great album too. Cornerstone is one of the best songs of the YEAR. And Jarvis Cocker... I'll tell you when I listen to it again tomorrow k? haha.

BTW, I was trying out something yesterday. This is seriously trippy:

1) Sort your iTunes songs according to 'Time'
2) Starting with the song with the SHORTEST time, start playing the playlist IN SEQUENCE.
3) Doesn't matter how short it is, or what it is, just play EVERYTHING in sequence.

This makes for a really trippy listening experience. Within the five minutes, I had Homer Simpson singing Spider Pig, the Theme frome Life, some voice-overs, some weird Janet Jackson interludes, Eminem cussing, and some weird instrumental shit from the likes of Beirut and Sufjan Stevens.

Once you get to the one minute and above 'songs', the actual songs start comign in, but everything before that is just serious weird shit.

Yes, I have too much time and too many mp3s. So sue me.

Kings Conveniently Declare Dependence.

What's this I hear? The Kings of Convenience have a new album coming out in October? Woohoo!

The album is called Declaration of Dependence, and judging from the first song that's available - Mrs. Cold; they haven't changed the formula around much. And that's just the way we like it, isn't it?

The album's due to drop on 20 October. I wouldn't count on it making its way around here through the ah... conventional avenues though. And even if it does, it's likely to be damn expensive. Sighhh...

Anyway, head on over to The Yellow Stereo to listen the King's of Convenience's new song now!

Take An Inch and Listen For a Mile

I found out about Singaporean chick Inch Chua's new EP The Bedroom through a friend's Facebook, and promptly went over to download it. For Free.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for free music. Even though I had no idea who Inch Chua was.... Heh. I was curious about her though. I mean... her name is INCH Chua. And you know me, give me an inch, and I'll take a Meter. Heh heh. (ok lawak 20 sen. sowi.)

Anyway, I quite like her voice... very soothing and cute even, in a very Submarines kinda way. First song Rule The World starts off with a beat that seems strangely feng-tau at first, does get a little infectious after a while. Can't say I'm a big fan of the electronica flourishes though., but it's still a pretty decent song.

As for the other songs, Aqueous Oblivion my favorite in the EP. It's a nice little acoustic number, which along with the last two are also nice little indie pop-folk kinda songs.

It's not a bad EP, plus it's free for download. And for that, I vote Inch Chua's The Bedroom EP as WIN!

Go check it out people. You can download it HERE, or by clicking on the picture ON THE TOP. The bottom picture takes you to an 'Inchterview' (heh heh) with Inch which is more than a few inches long.

Ok, fine. enough measurement jokes. Hmpfff.


(Picture taken from Audioreload)

Complicated Sonic Battles Madness

I went.

I saw.

I was dumbstruck.

I was fascinated by how different each of the four band members were.

The one with the frizzy hair who played keyboards/guitar/laptop/Chipmunkvoice, looked like Matt Stone, and had some weird jerky shakey nerdy movements when he played his instruments.

The one with the bubblegum who was like this huge frat boy slacker ambling around fiddling with stuff, drinking beer and playing the guitar and keyboard at the same time.

The one sitting between the drums with his cymbals perched REALLY FUCKING HIGH and didn't seem to stop drumming even when the other four were doing nothing but stare at him drumming.

The quiet one out back who didn't seem like he had any emotions and just played quietly all night while fiddling with that huge fucking mass of sound equipment at the back.

All so different, all seemingly operating independently of one another, but when the strange sounds they all made came together, it was this AMAZING wall of sound that somehow gelled together and somehow became a freaking awesome song.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.