I heard it through the grapevine...

...that Jason Mraz is coming to Singapore! And we can get to enjoy him in a full concert featuring only him in all his delicious glory.



Here's hoping that grapevines are wonderful sources of accurate info.

Stay tuned for more details.

pinocchio story. (made in singapore)

This track, out of 808's and Heartbreaks, was recorded during his Glow In The Dark Concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

firestar-tar!

Big Night Out feat. The Ting Tings (& Prodigy!!!)
13 January 2009
Fort Canning Park

Go get 'em: tickets

And I will see you there!

another anonymous tip.

Ani Difranco Live @ The Esplanade Theatre
10th February 2009

Hurrah! When I say "GREEN", you say "HORN"!

GREEN!

Check it check it here

check into...

Rihanna's new vid, "Rehab"

You know how typically in Hip Hop videos, they'd have girls in bikinis half nekkid not adding anything to any plot in the video except serving the purpose of flashing flesh?

It kinda feels like what JT is doing here. Doing nothing cept being a super yummy eye candy...

But let's not take away the credits for his writing this song. It's not too shabby. But of course, that opinion comes from a very biased pov.

global warming heats up EMA stage

The MTV Europe Music Awards KICKED ASS.

And the performance that was most KICKASS - on both cheeks and right up the hole...was The Killers'




Whoaaa...that's one OmniMax laser 3D graphix thingamajigga. Pretty awesome. Pretty and awesome. LOVE IT.

29 = Kanye Obscura

On the beautiful night of October 29th, I had one thing in mind - well technically a 2-in-1 thing - to catch Camera Obscura & Kanye West live, at 2 different venues.




Mission #1:
29th Oct 2008
Camera Obscura Live @ Esplanade 7:30pm

This was a real warm warm-up to the night - chill pop served with a syrup of great acoustics and a dash of Scottish charm...

They played all my favourites - Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken (lordy, tracyanne forgot the lyrics! but it's okay!), Let's get out of this country, Razzle Dazzle Rose, Super Trouper, Tears For Affairs and If looks could kill. Hoorah!

Plus a treat for all us quiet fans (only coz we were soaked in the lake of chillout-ness), they played some new songs, namely "French Navy", "You told a lie" and this one I've got on my bootleg cam, which I'm pretty sure I heard Tracyanne name it "Swans" but I can't go on the record for that, the Scottish accent might've gotten lost in translation....But Enjoy anyway, plus a vid of "Tears for affairs" following that...it was like my rainy day sunday playlist came to life at the esplanade!

Camera Obscura (new song sneak peek!)

Camera Obscura - Tears For Affairs

As most esplanade gigs go, the whole affair ended promptly at 9pm...as predicted. Which was why I was able to fit Kanye West's Glow In The Dark Tour into the night's itinerary. So off I went to Singapore Indoor Stadium...

Mission #2:
29th Oct 2008
Kanye West Glow In The Dark Tour
Live @ Singapore Indoor Stadium 8pm




Technically, the gig started at 9:20pm - that's when Kanye came out after the opening acts. I made it there at 9:30 (missed out 3 songs including "Through the wire". Hotdamn!)

But the rest of the gig was satisfying enough. Especially the encore - "Stronger" is one ape shit stadium song. There wasn't any glowing in the dark except those technicolor lights (did they borrow Kylie's setup??)

But if you paid moolah to watch this hyperbolic character in person on stage then you got your money's worth. He f*cked up, apologised and continued, he freestyled(?) about some fishes in the sea and pinocchio and turned his performances into the exorcising of his inner demons from the tragedy of his mother's death and the heartbreak from his breakup. And we had front row seats to watch all that entertaining attention-seeking drama to the tunes of rap (and some auto-tuned singing)! So no complaints, I enjoyed myself. Here, have some of it...

Kanye West - Love Lockdown

Kanye West - Flashing Lights

And so that's how the story goes...I don't believe in shooting stars, but I believe in shooting cars..(whatever that means)

It was one kick-ass night to remember. Woooot! Wooot!

Jack & Alicia bonding

Jack of all trades feat. crucial keys.

Look, ma! Kanye f*cked up!

Okay I didn't manage to get it on camera, but on the start of the performance for the still-hot-off-the-oven single, "heartless", Kanye effed up, admitted it and told the DJ to spin it again so he could restart. Earlier, the vocoded/autotuned voice of his was heard prematurely...Mr DJ, wake up!

Anyhoo, last night was a hullaballoo of a hoot, I caught Camera Obscura AND Kanye West on the same night. At 2 different venues. Suddenly I am mega grateful over the size of our little tiny island. Good golly miss molly, I DO HAVE special abilities after all.

Below is the final live version of "Heartless" performed at the Singapore Indoor Stadium last night.

More vids and pics to come!




For the full dish on the Kanye shindig, check out Music Haven's Review.

disarmingly yours..

...meanwhile at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit last Sunday...The Pumpkins jammed with Josh Groban...whoa?



I am totally disarmed...or twist-armed.

And a certain William Corgan said James Iha and D'arcy are not coming back to play in the band. ever again.

Read em and weep(?)

Okay. umm..Whatta bout Josh?

goodbye my friend...will you ever rap again?

Lily Allen gets a little fancy..

Lily Allen - Everyone's At It




And Kanye can't stop singing...

Kanye West - Coldest Winter



Kanye West - Robocop



speak for yourself..hah!

"Okay...okay okay, you will never stop it now, you need to drop it now..Coz I don't want no Robocop, you singing like a Robocop"

*bop bop*

The Killers' new vid, "Human"...



yes...sometimes we dance, sometimes we are dense..

new poised poison to keep you up..

- Eminem - "I Just Had A Relapse"

Album "Relapse" will be out early next year.

- Kanye West - "Heartless"

2nd single following "Love Lockdown". Kanye has a new best friend - the auto-tuner. "808's & Heartbreaks" is looking to be an emo hip hop r&b record..

- The Cure performs a free live gig in Rome - and you can catch it all here.

- Bjork and Thom Yorke goes "Nattura" for the preservation of Iceland. Proceeds from sale of this single goes towards the Nattura environmental campaign

ne-yo soul full of it.

The male reply to Rihanna's "Take A Bow" - which was originally written by Ne-Yo himself.



The Blackberry(?) adds another feature - translating lyrics sung by a female into lyrics that would make more sense sung by a male!

Kanye goes to Kenya

Kanye West premiered his video for latest single "Love Lockdown" on Ellen. In a move to embrace the gays and lesbians? you know...after his big "No bigotry" speech few months ago...after finding out his cousin's gay...aw c'mon...no information is too much information.

Enjoy the weird tribal psychedelia...

Kanye West - Love Lockdown
Uploaded by umusic

Kanye West performs LIVE in Singapore on 29th October at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Incidentally, Camera Obscura's also playing on the same (f*cken) night! at the Esplanade.

See, this is where I wake up one day finding out I had alien parents who gave me the super powers of.....UBIQUITOUSNESS.

special thanks to the special tip.

A nice big shout out to "Anonymous" for the Stars tip.

They are indeeeed coming down to Singapore on January 7th. And...and ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE these days.

We rocked the F1 Grand Prix, now come flock to this little country! I told you we're cool!

Just as we, Singapore, make an awesome stopover for the China-Europe trade route - there is a new revolution in being an awesome stopover for the Australia - Japan touring route.

Here are the deets: STARS Live @ Esplanade Faceebook Page

STARS Live in Singapore
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
9:00pm
Esplanade Concert Hall
Singabloodypore!



I'm stoked.

not as "ryanis"

New Alanis video..

The making & breaking of Prince of Hraminah & Princess Carmencita

Devendra Banhart - Carmencita

I find this oddly enjoyable. And oh, Banhart and Portman dated...and uhmm..they've just split. Or so says the gossip fishmongers.

Let's get fresh.

What's new that popped up most recently?

1) Kanye "World Premieres" his new single (from upcoming new album) at the VMAs - "Love Lockdown".


When thinking out of the box means doing what is outside of your capabilities...then let's just stay in. Nice song but not so nice singing (not even the auto-tuner could save him)


2) Travis' "J Smith" (from upcoming album entitled "Ode to J Smith) overlayed on the true life video of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours.


Is it not sick to actually tap my foot and enjoy this song while watching someone's torment in fast forward? In any way, this song is sick! ...And I mean that in the Hip Hop positive way.


3) Check out the video for Bob Dylan's "Dreamin' of you" from his new album, "Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8"

I don't have any smartass comments about this one. Dylan. Legend.

Musiq sould us out.

Deep down this soul mister has always wanted to crunk it like lil wayne.



Okay now that you had your fun with that video...can we have the real Musiq back?!

new album "On The Radio" drops Sept 16. We'll see...

there there

Hello all (singaporean) Radioheads,

so you're stuck in a land which your favourite band wouldn't even know how to spell, nor point it out in a map, so your chances of watching them perform live in your home soil is as small as the invisible dot that is Singapore in the atlas.

So you surf into this borderless world called World Wide Web, and whaddaya know, you get an entire concert of your favourite band performing for you, live in your bedroom (in your laptop, from a website - if you beg, don't choose.)

Click here to watch the full webcast of Radiohead live in Santa Barbara on 28th Aug 2008.

Enjoy.

nothing beats....

Singapore's annual indie fest by the bay is back... eyes and ears wide open for:

The Lucksmiths
Electrico
Jebediah
Force Vomit
Joy Electric
The Oddfellows

and many many more...

Let's go, people: Baybeats 2008

R&B Returns....

Ne-Yo's been making waves..that new single is hothothot. He'll be collaborating with Nas, Jay-Z and Talib Kweli in his new album due out next month. And since we're pretty much all bling-ed out on the heavy pool of Hip Hop, it's time to get back some soul.

Brandy and Monica returns soon to give the current Rhythm&Blues genre a little bit of zing. This is how it's done newbi-tches...


Ne-Yo's "Year of the Gentleman" drops Sept 16.



Brandy's "Human" drops November 11.



Monica's "Lesson Learned" drops sometime this fall.




R&B saved!

I need you so much closer...

Death Cab For Cutie

live @ Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore

12 Aug 2008

In an age of attention-deficit disorderliness, I shall keep this short. Just as the band had kept the gig pretty short (and yes, I'm still bearing a small grudge over it)

I don't know how many times I've mouthed "If only DCFC would play in singapore.." and then brush it impossible at the next breath. Who would've thunk that it all accumulated into a silent prophecy that came true.

The gig was surreal (to me at least). The band was possessed (by the music). The fans were left unsatisfied. (what's the hurry, DCFC?)

I got swept under the death cab rug as they enclosed me with their brilliant darkness, the world was shut out and at the "photobooth" chorus I was asphyxiated by their surreal physical presence barely inches in front of me, throwing their beautiful music to my face. Music that've played in countless loops in the mixtape of my life in drive-by.

My heart is an empty cave full of echoes - repeating the lines "I need you so much closer"....as "transatlanticism" sealed the night.

(How's that for a line of groupie devotion, ben and gang?)

A roadie gave me the setlist and ben's guitar pick - precious physical reminder of a metaphysical experience...

You're welcome, Ben Gibbard.

all souled out.

one of my favourite indie boys...I tend to oberst into his songs...heh

emu on acid trip

I thought it was the mix of coke light and tridents gum that did this to my head...but no, the stereo demands some acknowledgement and some crazy trippy remix of an otherwise mellow sleepy song will make you empty your conscious bank just so you can pay attention.

Check out this remix.

Death Cab For Cutie - Steadier Footing (Mikio Mix)
Download mp3 (right-click & Save target as..)

What's in a name?! A mega-important cool factor, that's what!

While it's cool and all to bring down a slew of international artistes and slap and roll together a weekend music festival.....can't you at least make it sound more innovative than calling it "sing(f*ckin)fest?! especially since you're gonna make it annual now...

big day out - splender in the grass - all tomorrow's parties - loollapalooza - now thossse, even though I may not know shit about the festivals or who's playing, sounds like something I'd wanna tell people that I've gone to!

Compare the following:

"I had an awesome weekend at Big Day Out man, it was the shit!"

"I had an awesome weekend at Singfest man, it was the shit!"

now which is "madness!!" and which is "meh"?

I'm gonna come up with a list of alternative names for this festival...watch this space..

Anyway. This year's lineup sounds like an improvement (if you consider Rick Astley a knockout punch better than Cyndi Lauper). Hahahah...rick who? what??

Other than that slight flatline on the heart rate monitor - you can keep your heart pumping for:

- LostProphets
- Jason Mraz
- Alicia Keys
- Travis
- Panic At The Disco
- New Found Glory
- Melee

...and more

Singfest 2008
August 2 & 3
Fort Canning Park

Check out deets and the rest of the lineup on the webpage: http://www.singfest.sg/

this will possess your heart.

Fellow xin jia po-ans - hold on to your seats! They're coming to town!!!

I'm talking bout lyrical genius Ben Gibbard and company - Death Cab For Cutie.

Live in Singapore, August 12 @ The Esplanade Concert Hall. Tickets on sale June 27 onwards from Sistic.

Thank you Greenhorn Productions. Never thought I'd see the day. So it's not ridiculous for me to hope that Connor Oberst and gang would one day come to our oh-so-hip tiny lil island huh.

*squeals*

As Bryan Adams would sing.............. thought. I'd. died. and. gone to hair-eh-vern....


See yall there. Front row (hopefully)...that's me.

with a buzz in my ears...

Download Sigur Rós' new single here.

Not your regular pensive Rós I have to warn you.

Sounds exactly like the kind of music that makes you strip and march naked across the fields.

Watch out for new album - "með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust", translated - "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly". Drops 23rd June.

Tracklist:

01 "gobbledigook" · 3:05 mins

02 "inní mér syngur vitleysingur" · 4:05 mins

03 góðan daginn · 5:15 mins

04 við spilum endalaust · 3:33 mins

05 festival · 9:24 mins

06 suð í eyrum · 4:56 mins

07 ára bátur · 8:57 mins

08 illgresi · 4:13 mins

09 fljótavík · 3:49 mins

10 straumnes · 2:01 mins

11 all alright · 6:21 mins

..That's right, folks, you saw that last title - Jonsi's gonna sing in English!

Check out the naked video on their website: http://sigurros.com/

It'll be an un-bare-able wait for this new album...(I know. I couldn't think of a better pun.)

anywhere she lays her head

How do you get from starring as a sexy starlet in a Justin Timberlake music video to cutting an album of Tom Waits covers to getting engaged to Alanis Morissette's former fiance? (ok fine. the latter's irrelevant but..whatever)

Ask Scar Jo.

Scarlett Johansson - Falling Down (Tom Waits Cover)

hot off the entanglement oven

"Flavors of Entanglement" drops in stores 10th June.

And how about a teaser of all the tracks.......

keep your mouth shut, keep your guard up

I guess it's always a good idea to have your fans make your music video because then occasionally you get these kinda gems as opposed to artistes being patterns on a wallpaper video.

Dashboard Confessional - Thick As Thieves

the odd couple of weird mix

well-respected hip hop + emo vocalist + porn star

This is kinda like err...the grown-up version of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop".

If it's your birthday today, Happy Birthday!

can you spare 4 minutes?

eye to the fantastic

If Only


Universe & U


Other Side of the World



KT Tunstall
Live @ Suntec City Hall, Singapore
27 March 2008

I enjoyed this one. Been a fan since her first single "Other Side of the World" and it's pretty awesome that she made a stop here in the singapura. A little over the top on the audience praises but down to earth in her kookiness. KT owned it. Made the audience do some poppin and lockin, cracked some pretty lame funny jokes and was generally very warm.

With the band and some back-up singers, she did most, if not all the songs off "Drastic Fantastic", a couple off "Eye to the Telescope" and the encore included a Bangles cover, "Walk Like an Egyptian".

I would've enjoyed it more if she did "False Alarm" and "Heal Over" but ye can't have everything...

Maybe next time.

shindiggity

I won't be in town! I will be giving music my love, elsewhere....if you're still home, there's no better place to be music-lovin' than this local all-star hip hop line-up. Give 'em love....I know you've plenty.

a mosaic of my mosaic experience

Mosaic Music Festival
The Esplanade, Singapore
7th March - 16th march 2008

(Oh I can just sneeze at the dust I've collected at this blog....can you?)

Mosaic 2008. If you were there, not bad, you're a square but with sandpapered edges so that makes you safe and cool...not that I'm saying I'm cool or anything but hell yea I was there baby!!

Let me break it down to you.....


Broken Social Scene made me see Stars and Sons, bringing me to the 7/4 Shoreline while I watch all these people drinking Lover's Spit ignoring their parents' pep talk about The Bird and The Bee. Ironically, everyone broke into a Polite Dance Song Again & Again because I'm a Broken Heart. So I decided to get to The Roots of my emotions only to find The Seed 2.0 is planted in my left foot, so I boogied barely 10 metres in front of ?uestlove and screamed "You Got Me". It was so loud, my voice travelled to the 11th hour where Sondre sang me, "Don't be Shallow". I was so tired after that music-infested week, I went home and had to Sleep on Needles.

So. what's your Mosaic story?

always rains in london

Just when you thought it'd stopped raining...ella ella spins a new cloud with drops of Klaxons....

The Brit Awards says...everyone loves the Foos, Mark Ronson is one dapper music producer, they're afraid of turning down Kanye too, they like to monkey around awarding has-been boy bands, among other things...

explosions on the ground

Explosions in the Sky
19th Feb. 2008
Live @ Ruums Club, KL Malaysia

Took a sorta day trip to catch Explosions in the Sky in KL. Awesome show, although I'll admit their sounds were too epic for a small club. They were intense and had...great stamina, never stopped once during their 90 minute set. No encore, no problem.

The next time I see Explosions, I want them to do a rooftop gig with spotlights beaming in the sky ala gotham calling for batman. Now That would be perfectly matched with their music.

grammy-fying

Best New Artiste

Record Of The Year

Song Of The Year

Best Crack Addict Singer

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

Best Pop Vocal Album

Which award did Amy Winehouse lost?

Tricky question, I know..

answer: "Best Crack Addict Singer"

you. complete. me.

sampling a flavor of entanglement

Just a sample of what's to come... Alanis' new album: "Flavors of Entanglement" will be released "maybe in May or June" this year.

She said this album is all about "the kind of rock bottom, 'Holy shit, I am a broken woman' moment"

Otherwise known as: "This is how I whine after losing my hot fiance (Ryan Reynolds) to a hot (according to most pervs) actress Scarlett Johannsson."

I believe she has every right to whine. scream. and knock the head of this hot dude Ryan. (And I don't mean the head that's on his neck)

And I can't wait to hear her do that through songs!

it just keeps getting better.

Vega Bonding

If you're a Suzanne Vega fan in Singapore and you missed her concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall that happened on 19th January, let me make you mad. mad alien broccoli green with envy on what you missed out:

- A prompt start (none of that wait-for-an-hour before the real show starts)

- An acapella version of "Tom's Diner" - a finger-snapping minimalist opener that slowly builds up to each member of the band coming out and taking positions.

- A band version of "Tom's Diner" - an extended one - performed as an encore.

- TWO encores with 2 songs performed each.

- Anecdotes from Ms Vega of what some songs meant and how it came about - from new ones like "Angel's Doorway" and "Pornographer's Dream" to old ones like "In Liverpool"

- A mix of the old, the new, the borrowed and the blues

- a 30 min autograph signing session

- One heck of a darn satisfying musical evening


Nanny nanny poo poo...I was there, were you?

butcher had a field day

sometimes a song gets hot. And then participants of talent shows dabble with that flavour of the month song...only to leave a bad taste to our mouths or ears rather, for the rest of our lives.

Caution: Don't watch these if you want to keep thinking that this Timbaland-produced song called "Apologize" performed by One Republic is actually...a really good song.



falsetto (aka f*cksetto in this case) butcher - Pop Stars

Sometimes falsettos are sexy coming from a man. Sometimes they make you wonder if he's actually sterile.



bjork butcher - Swedish Idol

If bjork had her way of doing a parody to this song, it would sound like this. Except coming from bjork, we'd at least say it was experimental as opposed to this temperamental, horizontal, orthodontal (oh I could go on....) piece of sh*t.



I-think-I'm-Aguilera Butcher - Australian Idol

You're kidding me right? Tell me the reason they're clapping is because.......uhh............umm.................I give up. I really have no idea, you wanna give it a go?


One Republic

This is an original live recording. I'll have to say in consolation, this isn't an easy song to sing live - even the original singer doesn't impress. One of those songs best enjoyed as a clean recording....

So. The lesson here is......

participants of talent shows have no talent in choosing songs. And (I know you know this is coming) it's too late to apologize. Toooo Laaaaaaaaaate. Yeah eee yeahhh....

Favourite Music Videos of 2007

A new year has begun and it's time to do the token reflection of yesteryear.

I'd like to list my favourite music videos I've come across last year. There have been many, and I'm sure there are many more I haven't seen, what I'm trying to say is...this list is based on the as-wide-and-far-as-my-eyes-have-seen scale. Here goes...

In no order of merit:

1. Feist - 1234

What can I say, this video makes me giggle in glee...it can totally make my day. Sometimes the best things in life may look simple...but are the most difficult to execute.

Check out some behind-the-scenes footage of the video:

2. Timbaland feat. The Hives - Throw It On Me

I love this! It's a comic book visual feast that's thrown on your face the way the song has been thrown to your ears from a slingshot with full force. Love the song too, this is what you get if we all (rock & hip hop & WWE?) can all get along.

3. Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do

An example of how a music video can actually enhance your enjoyment of a song. You know sometimes movies (adapted from books) struggle to stay loyal to the book? This video stayed very loyal to the song - the creepy and haunting feel of falling out of love never felt so right.

4. Band Of Horses - Is There A Ghost

I don't know what's the significance of a pillow thief but this video had a build-up, a climax and an ending - making it very easy to enjoy this very simple yet creative piece of work.

5. Mark Ronson feat. Lily Allen - Oh My God

Did someone say "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" - Yes, cartoons can seduce too and to the music of Mark Ronson, it's just purr-fection dahling...

There you have it. My top 5. You have no idea how many times my window hung while I'm posting this. Not Cool Blogspot. Not Cool. Hope you enjoyed that.