same boy, same girl, same situation

Remember this song? The hit song where 2 R&B songstresses were cat-fighting over the same boy?

Well a decade later we have a similar male version of the same situation. 'Cept males don't cat-fight over the same girl, they sit down, smoke cigars, have some scotch and celebrate over their careless and easily-tempted libidos. (Although I've to say the video's got a funny but lame ending)

I would've preferred them getting down and dirty fighting it out in a boxing rink or something....but then their homeboys would say "she ain't worth it, brotha."

Then somebody should do a brandy and monica remix, "(you need to give it up) the boy ain't worth it."

By the way, if you didn't notice, Usher said in the video, his album comes out November...weee!

smack this.

Oei, it looks like there's more foreign live music here in August, Akon will be performing at Downtown East D'marquee, ticket info here. Featuring opening acts from DJ Koflow, BS artistes Krazie Starr, Akeem and Richard J.

It's a nice place that D'marquee, lord knows it started out as a venue for the first ever local hip hop fest, the stage was graced by the likes of taufik, hady, imran and ahli fiqir who've all gone to bigger stages. Now the younger boys are sharing em with a Senegalese hip hopper. Oh, the evolution of the d'marquee...or rather the evolution of hip hop in singapore.

peanut butter and power jam

Hello hello. Them power jocks are holding the annual Power Jam tomorrow at Zouk. Catch 5 bands battling it out for the coveted recording prize and local bands, Great Spy Experiment, Shirlyn Tan & The Unexpected showing those guys how it's done....There's also the Power98 annual local music awards (oh, we have a scene!)

SMS "POWER JAM" to 9820 9800 to get your free invites.

Have fun!

August Awesome-ness

One more week to August. One more week to one of the busiest music months in the land of dot red.

We'll have Baybeats, check out Mercury Rev or check out King Kong Jane, PlainSunset, March Twelve, Everybody Loves Irene, B-Quartet, Kate of Kale and many more. Whether you're indie or hindi or bindi or cindy, head to the esplanade and show some love.

And to recover from hearing the voices in your head for standing too near to the speakers at baybeats, fight fire with fire by going to Singfest 2007 and let those eardrums rip to bands like Pet Shop Boys, Avenged Sevenfold, Mxpx, Sugar Ray, Great Spy Experiment and as the Siamese King would say with more passion than me..et cetera et cetra et ceteraaa. (Btw, booger, wot an ugly poster for a big-ass event but like that's gonna stop you from going. pffft..)

And once you think you've had enough faux sex, drugs and rock & roll week..take a cheap 2-week vacation to Batam and then come back and cheer up to the fact that you could never afford to travel around the world by flying down to WOMAD 2007 on the 26th.You could afford to go round the World of Music, Arts and Dance however and yes, it's time for a little culture, my little vulture. Feed on Asian Dub Foundation, Youssou N'Dour, Sheila Chandra and the league of extraordinary global musicians. It's the 10th year anniversary and will this be the 10th time you're gonna miss it? Come, have some ambition for once.

Plus love, angel, music, baby skinny fly momma Stefani will also rip you off a couple hundred dollars...I mean..rock the stage. Yeahhhh. It'll be madness on the 14th.

And then of course Robert Smith and company will be like an "opening act" to the smorgasbord of music mania as The Cure performs live on the first day of August.

So...this would be a redundant line but...Have an awesome August!

talk cock sing song

Looky here...the Beastie Boys shot this vid in our own lil' aisles of shophouses. Probably done when the boys were here for the Good Vibrations festival. Beastie espionage in singapore's chinatown yall! (is this chinatown?!)

By the way, Dave Grohl and his bassist were in town for a bit. Truly. Too bad the foos are not putting up a show here...They were here to promote their upcoming sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, due out September 25, watch out for it!

Where the real hip hop is at?

Is this where the real hip hop is at? Well...judge it for yourself. A compilation of some of the best in the local hip hop scene. A rejuvenation if it was ever dead...

I hear the CDs running out fast. Get your copy soon @ Earshot Singapore (Singapore Arts Museum) or Miz 29 (Queensway Shopping Centre).

More details here.

Z for zouk

Zouk gets an 'A' grade.

check check it out. Singapore's Zouk made it to number 10 in the world's 2007 top 50 clubs poll on djmag.com.

We have a world-class party place right here yall!

Not too shabby.

Surf the rock.

Give it up for these trust fund rockers. They turn 14 and their voice is breaking into songs for a showcase at the esplanade. Surely you don't wanna miss out on all that mat rocker fun? It'll be like a malay wedding, only it's BYOF (bring your own food) or something...

Force Vomit: 14 Years Of Spankin That Naughty Treble
Late Nite @ Esplanade

Buy your invitation cards here.

Mark your calendars...

Click on thumbnail posters for a better view.

Take out your diary planners thingamajigs and scribble these to memory and swear on the lord of chords and the god of beats that you will take time out from that nine to five or nine to nine jobs and attend these for your own.....pleasure.

My my my, delilah

Before:

After:

Indie? rock? hip hop? ballad? Don't categorize, just...uhh.."creati-vize". Innovation is a beautiful thing.

Just a Modern Rock Story

Sometimes reading about your favourite musicians could change your perspectives on certain songs you may have a preconceived notion of. For some it may spoil the pleasure, for others it opens up a whole 'nother level of appreciation for the song because sometimes it's hard to appreciate songs you don't understand but oh don't we love songs that have quirky stories behind them..especially those with quirky titles like say, damien rice's "blower's daughter" (he dedicated it to his flute teacher's daughter he had a crush on.) So anyway...it's always interesting to see where those music and lyrics came from, specifically finding out what kind of individuals the musicians who wrote them are. And does falling in love or hating one's music mean that you would absolutely adore or despise the individual who brought it to you?

A tune for your thoughts?

Meanwhile, if listening to scottish indie pop band, Belle & Sebastian have piqued your curiosity about the band, then head on to the local 'indie' book store BooksActually to get a copy of their 2005 biography. It features contributions from all members, past and present.

Belle & Sebastian: Just a modern rock story (S$41.50)
Get your copy @ BooksActually:

125A Telok Ayer Street
Singapore 068594
+65 6221 1170

Best of...Live Earth

Sure, any music fan would wish they could be in 7 places at one time on 07/07/07, but you know the best ones can still be savoured way after it's all ended.


Here're some of the awesome collaborations/performances that were borne out of bringing 150 musicians together in one day, for one cause.


Damien Rice & David Gray - Que Sera Sera
(Live in London)
My favourite. You wouldn't think it's the perfect message but listen to the lyrics carefully...And sing along why doncha...

The Police & John Mayer & Kanye West - Message in a bottle
(Live in New York)
When Kanye climaxes with "We can save the world", you could argue that Captain Planet is actually...a black man.

Corinne Bailey Rae & John Legend - Mercy mercy me
(Live in London)
Sung as if they were Marvin Gaye's offsprings, making daddy proud..

Linkin Park - Pushing me away
(Live in Tokyo)
Have you heard Chester sing calmly and seen Mike on the keyboards...? Only when there's global warming...

Smashing Pumpkins - Today
(Live in New York)
Nice to see Jimmy's biceps and Billy's bald head again and everyone's askin..."who's the hot new bassist?" She's named after one of the spice girls I heard.. The new album, "Zeitgeist" unleashes today.

Alicia Keys - That's the thing about love
(Live in New York)
What better (more opportunistic) way to debut your single than in front of 2 billion people...Not too shabby, the song..

Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens - Wild World
(Live in Hamburg)
A last minute addition...some of the best things come during the last minute. (and holy shit, he looks like my pak long {uncle})

Madonna - La Isla Bonita
(Live in London)
Oooh. Me encanta. Trust Madonna to get with the times, by singing with a pirate on guitar...

One disappointment: Justin Timberlake's absence. Boo.

Now I wonder how many trees will be cut and how much fuel consumed when they come up with the Live Earth DVD box set.

Welcome to the flower show.

Let's play a game. Guess the band.

89.776% of this local rock band is made up of teachers. The band name has 7 syllables. They took only 465 days in the local music scene before getting radio airplay. They travelled 209890 miles to Texas and introduced to Americans that people from the little red dot can rock too. The lead singer's phone number is 9247**** and last night they rocked the esplanade powerhouse for 55.63 minutes.

Guess who?!

Behold.


The Great Spy Experiment.

Pleasing their ever-growing number of fans as always....When is that elusive album gonna come out? Guess you're just gonna have to watch this space.

GSE live @ Rampage the Durian - 07/07/07
Esplanade Outdoor Stage

Oh by the way, I totally made some of those numbers up. Captain Funkycurls will forgive me. Cheers.

Live Earth: One colossal redemption song

It is noble and I won't be cynical but I will point out that touring musicians probably contribute the most in carbon monoxide poisoning of mother earth.

According to a Rolling Stones article, 1,200 tour buses and trucks hit the road annually, travelling more than 60 million miles, using 13 million gallons of fuel, releasing more than 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the air. - about the amount 30,000 cars generate in a year.

Holy sh....

That's why I'd say...Live Earth is one humongous medley of Redemption Songs for artistes around the globe. As Dave Matthews puts it, their "karmic debt to the environment is enormous". So now as musicians try to repay this karmic debt, the world listens and reflects. Music is not the bandage that will heal the world here but is the phone that calls the doctor. And the doctor is you.

If I could be in the audience, I would've picked London 'coz the line-up looked bloody awesome. Damien Rice and David Gray, when you give me 2 troubadours singing together....surely I will Answer The Call.

Like KT Tunstall said, "We've had our industrial revolution, we've had our digital(?) revolution, now let us have our emotional awareness revolution!" (And here's hoping that these musicians stay true to what they've just preached - to have a greener tour plan and stick to it.)

Catch the live blog updates here.

The official song and video for Live Earth 070707:

Madonna - Hey you

SINGfest Music Festival

SINGfest tickets are out. Get it before it eats up an extra $50 outta your pockets.

Party at Fort Canning and feel patriotic over the fact that this city is getting hipper by the day because hello! look who're comin' to town to celebrate along to that fact!

SINGfest 2007

Day 1 line-up (8th Aug, 4pm-11pm)

• The Stranglers
• Cyndi Lauper
• Pet Shop Boys
• Sugar Ray
• Sasha Bach Band
• Shaggy

Day 2 line-up (9th Aug, 1pm-11pm)

• Gym Class Heroes
• Avenged SevenFold
• Hinder
• MXPX
• The Noisettes
• Cobra Starship
• One Buck Short
• Great Spy Experiment

Venue: Fort Canning

For ticket info, go here.

Here's hoping this will be an annual good-reason-to-be-patriotic par-tay.

So let's go. As the noisettes would sing,

"don't you know you've got nothing to dread?"

...because music is an infectious disease nobody should be cured from

I have a dream.

And that is to be a music advocate.