Here's to a Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence

I've never watched the movie. Nor do I plan to watch it anytime soon. 

But I know the premise of it which is set in the World War 2, Japanese occupation period. Amongst the more interesting facts of the movie was that it starred David Bowie (Mr Ziggy Stardust himself) and a composer known as Ryuichi Sakamoto. 

Impressively, Mr Sakamoto is also an activist, a composer, a record producer, a writer, a singer, a pianist, and an actor. From my reading of wikipedia over his achievements, I understand that he is pretty experimental in music as well. 

He composed the theme for the movie Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence entitled "Forbidden Colours". Over time, the title of the song eventually became Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. 

When I first heard the song, I thought it was one of the most beautiful oriental pieces ever written. It is a mellow tune, where the intro starts of rather softly, the same 3 notes over and over a few bars until the melody begins. There is much variation to it but the same continues until it reaches the bridge, where you get the same melodic sequence but in a heightened and climatic fashion. 

Now I'm not too fond of the original score with David Sylvian in vocals. I very much preferred the song without the lyrics sung. So I shall not post the same herein. 

But here is perhaps the original score in the movie. And yes, the young Japanese bloke in it is Mr Sakamoto himself. 

Now this is the lone piano version of the song which is also beautiful in its way. 

And this is another beautiful version of the same, played by Ryuichi Sakamoto himself and Everton Nelson on violin and Jacques Morelenbaum on cello. Equally as beautiful. 

The song would not be complete without a guitar version of it. And the best guitar version I was able to find on the internet is the one below. Sakamoto on piano, but only playing a supporting role and Kaori Muraji (a finger-style guitar artiste in her own right) on guitars. I am still trying my hand to play the song, but I'm stuck in the intro. Perhaps with great will and might, I 'might' be able to play the song one day. But below is the beautiful guitar version of it. 

And just when you thought that the song already has its share of versions, then there is the pop version. Utada Hikaru mixes it up with some pop sensibilities and makes the song sound good in an RnB fashion. I like it. It's not usual for me to like remixes, but this is far from a remix and may stand as an RnB song on it's own right. 

So by now, you would probably guess that in writing this blogpost, I would looped all the above versions of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Bored do I get? I assure you not. I'm in love with this song, and perhaps I will keep looking for the different variations of this song. 

In case you are fed up of this song already, Ryuichi Sakamoto was also the composer for The Last Emperor. I remember as a kid, I found the movie to be slow and boring, but had a good impression of the music in the movie. Of course when I watched The Last Emperor much later in life, I found the movie to be a beautifully directed movie by Bernardo Bertolucci and it's victory as the best movie of 1987 was quite fitting. My impression of the music however was further fortified. 

So Ieave you with two haunting tracks from The Last Emperor perhaps evidencing the brilliance of Mr Sakamoto as a musician. Take the time to listen to these beautiful tracks. I keep saying beautiful, because that's as plain as it can get. Beautiful.

I Dare You to Move

Sure, Switchfoot plays really melodic tunes and sometimes hinge on the emo-rock / pop rock genre.Nevertheless Switchfoot continues to write positive and affirming lyrics and their songs are pretty down to earth, resonating on every day issues that the everyday man (or woman) encounters. They are a band of Christians, and not a Christian band and thus their music appeals even to the secular market to which people from all walks of faith could enjoy. They are a great live act as well.

 

And it is this song that I share today, is a song which has been held closely in my heart for many years, ever since I first heard it and fell in love with it.

It is not just an anthemic tune, but a song of hope, a song of encouragement. To lift our spirits and challenge us to rise above the obstacles ahead of us. I'm pretty sure that the lyrics have some connotations on faith and with God, we know all things are possible and we can overcome them. But for that assistance, we must perhaps take the first step towards recognizing it and from that recognition, to move towards His assistance to overcome the everyday obstacles which are constantly ahead of us.

We all have our own disappointments. Because we live in a world so full of diversity and a world of choices, we are sometimes left feeling disappointed when our expectations are not met due to the actions or choices of the people around us. As much as there is beauty in diversity and choice, therein lies too the tensions it creates and this is also very real to us. 

From this disappointment, what then do we do? Do we continue to wallow in self pity and blame the rest of the world for our circumstances? Or do we dare ourselves to rise above the occasion and prove our detractors wrong?

Only recently I have encountered events that were painful and disappointing afflicted no less by the people around me, some of whom I had the pleasure of working for and some who were as close to me as brothers come. 

From conversations with a friend of mine, I came to understood that I was a 'marked man' in my old workplace, something which perhaps denote a more sinister and negative remark as an employee. The firm which I have toiled day and night, made me a marked man some time ago only confirming my suspicions of the treatment I perhaps have received during those times. And they were only confirmed by an outsider after I had decided to leave the firm. I resigned.

And also recently, despite several on going discussions with a good friend of mine and getting my hopes up on starting afresh, certain issues couldn't be 'resolved'. This fresh start that I had hoped for didn't work out. Finding out the reasons of why it 'may' not work out made it even more painful. Due to choices which were made. Due to the diversity of expectations from the both of us. I understood his points and respected them. Nevertheless, the painful feeling of disappointment was very much as real and was never any less.

I decided that despite all these happenings, no bridges need be burned. In fact, it would be wise not to burn any bridges, for there will come a day where we would cross them once more. But for now, I understood that there won't be any crossings. Not for the interim period. 

Despite all these recent disappointments in life, the only way out of it, is to pick myself up and continue this journey. Afterall, these are merely bumps ahead of a long journey ahead. 

These are the many disappointments that you and I will perhaps encounter. Rejection from the powers that be. 

The hurtful actions of the people who are close to you. 

Perhaps unrequited affection towards another. 

Or issues that we knew needed to be dealt with at some point of time but were not dealt with due to the fear of failure.

Or that we sometimes think we are any less worthy in the eyes of other people. 

I believe we can overcome these disappointments or hurdles if we allow ourselves to. 

We will always be in the scrutinizing of eyes of people. 

We will always be judged by people unfairly whether we like it or not. 

But we can always choose to rise above these judgments and disappointments .

And for that to happen, we first need to move. 

To pick ourselves up. Like today never happened. 

And the song I share today, shall be a challenge to readers out there who need to take that step. Enjoy the lyrics and perhaps let it sink it. 

I dare you to move. As I dared myself to move.

DARE YOU TO MOVE - SWITCHFOOT

Welcome to the Planet

Welcome to existence

Everyone's here

Everyone's here

Everybody's watching you now

Everybody waits for you now

What happens next

What happens next

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift youself up off the floor

I dare you to move

I dare you to move 

Like today never happened

Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout

Welcome to resistance

The tension is here

The tension is here

Between who you are and who you could be

Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor

I dare you to move

I dare you to move 

Like today never happened

Today never happened before

Maybe redemption has stories to tell

Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell

Where can you run to escape from yourself?

Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go? 

Salvation is here

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor

I dare you to move

I dare you to move 

Like today never happened

Today never happened

Today never happened

Today never happened before.

Pax Automata - Progressively Great

This is has been long overdue. At least for me.

In the never-ending search for great Malaysian music (and I don't mean the likes of Siti Nurhaliza or Search), I have noted some in an old post of mine. Click here for results. 

Tempered Mental is perhaps my favourite Malaysian band. 

Their EP or their debut was mind blowing as for the first time, I witness a bass playing lady with the ability to scale and run the bass while keeping melody with her singing. It is already difficult for me to sing while plucking the guitar, what more the scaling the bass the way she does? The EP cemented their credibility as Malaysia's most exciting band, in my books. 

Their full album, The View From Here was a powerful album and it had musical gems like Space and Simple. Crunching riffs, progressive melodies and drumming which is mis-timed to perfection with it's odd time signature. I wouldn't be surprised if they cite Tool, Rush or perhaps even Dream Theatre as their influences. Let's put it this way, this trio of Melina William, Jimmy Tan and Jack Lian are as technicaly gifted as they are melodically. 

I waited with bated breathe for Pax Automata, their latest release. 

With some peeps of mine, we ventured into The Bee in Publika for the release and gig. 

What we witnessed that night was a soundscape of epic proportions. The band started off with Automata which is their first single and it blew our minds. Not only were they tight in composure, the energy was electrifying! The first thing my friend said to me was, "Damn they are tight!"

Well anyway, this posts isn't so much about the gig as I didn't knew the title of the songs, but was drowned in musical awesomeness. It is their album which I will review. I bought the album even before the gig had begun, thus perhaps showing that I trusted that the album would not disappoint. Heck, even if it was disappointing, I'm sure it would have topped any album from any local artist all the same. 
Below is a review of some of the tracks of the album:-

Automata  - The first song introduces the entire mood for the album. With an explosive riff for an intro with technical guitar sensibilities, the tempo of the song remains consistent throughout. This is easily my favourite track of the entire album as we have not 1 guitar solos but 3 guitar solos and a chugging bridge. The chorus is pretty interesting as within the standard 4 bar chorus, the first two bars show a minor progression while the last two bars shifts from minor to a major progression (please correct me if I am wrong). And this is only the first song, setting the progressive rock tone which would be evident throughout the entire album. 

And Stay Out - This song, unlike the former, starts of rather slowly, building to its climax from the pre-chorus to the bridge. Once again the change in progression is noted. By the time the bridge is played towards the ending, it would have seemed like an entire different song altogether. Another chugging bridge to savour. 

Break starts off with a pretty interesting intro, a dual attack of bass and guitar riffs without the usual distortion, which eventually forms the pre-chorus. There is a full guitar attack during the, well, guitar solo. Very Dream Theatre-ish. 

Run is perhaps a rather fun tune. Or starting of as a fun tune, with its drumming which is reminiscent to Paramore's That's What You Get. But that's as friendly as it gets as the song takes a turn for a more sinister melody at the turn of the bridge, before reverting once again to the friendliness of the introductory tune. Radio friendly perhaps, but a great tune nevertheless. 

Matilda - This song starts of strongly with its heavy drumming, guitar riffing and bass pounding. A heavy start which gradually settles to a more sombre verses before building up at the pre-chorus and then finally unleashing an assault of sound at the chorus. This goes on for a good deal of time, before the bridge is played. The bridge sounds somewhat different with its raggae drum beat and running bassline and eventually it ends in the same heavy way as it had started. This would be my 2nd favourite track of all and one that I would love to drum for due to its 4 different parts. This is would be a good example of progressive rock with 4 different parts combined into one rocking song. 

Sleep - Not a favorite track of mine as the songs is relatively straightforward. I only fancied the pre-chorus. Not really a filler, as the track is still a good one. Just not my favourite. 

Be - This is a good example of a song which starts of slow and sombre. And it gradually builds without with steady progression unlike some of the earlier songs and it ends heavily with some melodic chaos. Kind of like Live's Dam At Otter Creek which starts of slow and light and ends heavy. 

Ants is reminiscent to their track from their debut full album, entitled Cold. Also a moody track and perhaps one that is lyrically catchy and perhaps sinister all throughout. The guitar solo at the bridge is one which is chaotic and very Soundgarden-ish. Wait, heavier than Soundgarden's solos I would say. 

Fight is another good song. It starts with a pumped up intro. You will notice the evident bass slapping with its catchy bassline. The song is pretty straight up rock save for the guitar solo which transcends from a drumming beat of 8/4 to a 4/4 beat and then back to it's original 8/4 beat. 

Cocooon - Now this is a pretty interesting tune. It starts of with a dreamy tune, no thanks to it's dreamy lyrics too. Easily one of my favourite tunes. The song picks up at the second verse and is a song with a steady song with clean guitars. However, the best bit is the variation of the bassline at the final verse or stanza of the song. The bassline is very evident and I love that bit of it which highlights the song for me. 

Blindfold  is a song of well, epic proportions with its beautiful acoustic melodies and subsequent strings. Also starts of as a dreamy tune which transcends into a progressive metal tune. Also easily one of my favourite tunes of the entire album. The guitar solo is very Satriani-isque and sounds very spacey. Something of the Satriani guitar scales perhaps. But as one listens to this tune and wonders how a tune can change from a dream pop song to a metal song, we can only accredit it to the technicalities that Tempered Mental brings in music. This song is perhaps an apt ending and an opus for Pax Automata. 

There ya go. Wow. Nerver knew I enjoyed doing progressive rock reviews. So many parts to review and not your usual run of the mill stuff. So once again, I deemed Tempered Mental as one of the best Malaysian bands ever. This album not only tops the list of best albums I have ever owned but also takes the local music one ante up. Its not a good follow up to The View from Here. It is a GREAT follow up.

This review is done for the love of great music. Now if only Yuna's new album would costs less than RM85.00, then perhaps I could get my hands on one and do a review......

Till then I leave you with Automata. This video is taken from this link which also dissects the album rather aptly. Credit is given to them and I take no credit in this video. 



Enjoy!

2012 - In retrospect

After a 4 month hiatus, I'm breaking the duck once more. 

It's been a rally, the past 6 months. More so, it had a lot to do with work. Being a litigator is not easy. I've thought I knew the costs of being one. And I'm reminded once more of how tiring it can be. Managing an average of 5-6 hours of sleep a day (I know, some people say that it's quite a lot and perhaps it is), sleepless nights aren't much fun especially waking up in the weee hours of the morning and just staring into deep space, counting sheep, hoping that you fall asleep once again without much fuss. 

But all that said and done and looking back at those times, it wasn't so bad afterall. We eventually survive. We will survive, since we live on hope even when hope seems to be nothing but a tiny flicker, yet, we latch on to it to get through the night. :) 

It was a roller-coaster year indeed, and also a year which sets out the foundations for my decision making and risk taking. Not yet, but I will get there very soon.

So, in retrospect, here are my bests and worsts of 2012

Movies

Seriously, this is a really tough decision to make..........nah. I'm just kidding. I should have perhaps chosen an Oscar contender, but alas, I'm bias and I follow my heart. I

It would be, yes you would have perhaps guessed it, The Dark Knight Rises. It's not as good as its predecessor, The Dark Knight, but it's an epic on its own. 

 

Don't get me wrong. I love many other movies as well. And Avengers would have been a close second. But comparatively, the intensity and drama didn't match the aforesaid Dark Knight who remains as brooding and conflicted as ever. 

Other notable movie mentions which are favourites of mine are The Amazing Spider-man, Judge Dredd and Moonrise Kingdom.

My favourite comedies, I've watched many comedies this year but Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator definitely takes the cake for it. I expected it to be another Borat-ish mockumentary but was quite delighted to find that there is a proper story set out The Dictator. So it has my vote for favourite comedy of the year, followed by Ted (seriously, who can resist a potty mouthed teddy bear?) and Will Ferrell's The Campaign (great stuff and a parody of the American election which is quite endearing). 

Music

Now....we were suppose to go to Singapore to watch the Foo Fighters. Tickets were bought and plans were made. Alas Dave Grohl had a really bad throat infection and lost his voice. Monies were refunded, but it was a waste cause it would have been an awesome concert. 

To compensate the misfortune, I bought myself L'arc En Ciel tickets for their concert in Singapore. I was gearing up for that so much so that I started downloading the music which was kept in cassette form by me, which was eventually disposed off. So yes, it was downloads and new L'arc En Ciel album acquisitions. 

But alas.......national service came a-calling. And on 28 April 2012, on the day of the L'arc En Ciel concert, BERSIH 3.0 happened (which will be covered below). And I would miss L'arc En Ciel's first and perhaps only ever tour in South East Asia. Damn.........

Anyhow, no regrets going for Bersih 3.0. I would have decided to go for Bersih 3.0 anyway. 

But the Avenged Sevenfold  (A7X) concert more than compensated for the above bereavement and grief of missing out on two concerts thus far. The Avenged Sevenfold was really tight and each beat was played out precisely! 

I never was a fan of Avenged Sevenfold and was only there so that I get to see a concert in 2012. But like many other prudent people going concerts, we listened as much as we can to AX7 and slowly but surely, I developed a liking for them. And on that day of the concert it was a done deal. I was an official fan of A7X. Energetic, frenetic and I wished I could sing more of their songs at the concert, but I can't cause I'm not familiar with the lyrics. Anyway, here's a video for you if you are either curious or interested.

But the best album, that I've bought for myself, would definitely be this one:-

Tempered Mental's Pax Automata

I've been anticipating their follow up album after The View From Here. I loved their previous album and the EP (Honestly) way way earlier. But this one transcends my expectations. The songs were executed with perfect timing and pinpoint accuracy. The songs were edgy and tight. And progressive rock never sounded so good. Melina was as usual, slapping the bass and singing where no men (or women) can master. Except Les Claypool of course. Jack's guitar shredding puts him on top as one of the best (and technical) players this side of Malaysia. And Jimmy does what he does best, keep the timing tight and attack when needed. Purely technical but enjoyable and rocking stuff. I had the opportunity to watch them launch Pax Automata and what an experience it was. I've been to many Tempered Mental outings but this one was easily the best. Malaysia's best band in my humble opinion.

So that's my album of 2012. Yes Sir. Crap. Can't upload any videos from the launch though. :(

Events

There were many events that had happened over the year. There were some weddings. There were some wakes and funerals. There were performances. And then there were demonstrations. 
The biggest event for me in 2012 would be the Bersih 3.0 rally. 5 years down after the first Bersih rally back in 10 November 2007, the people marched on for cleaner elections and a more transparent process. I have in my own words documented this in my post here.
In light of the upcoming general elections, pressure needed to be asserted to ensure that the terms of the Memorandum from Bersih 2.0 will be clearly adhered to. Dato' Ambiga, chair of the Bersih coalition had warned that the upcoming elections would be the dirtiest. From the events that happened since the political tsunami of 2008, one would not challenge that assertion. 
Things are changing still and the process will be even more evident. But once again, it was encouraging to see familiar faces once more (veterans of the Bersih rallies, and I'm one of them if I do say so meself :) nyahahah) and new faces who have joined in to voice their concerns of the decadence of the ruling coalition.
Speculation on the dates for the general elections were pushed further and we may see experience the general elections in the first (or second quarter) of 2013. We will be ready then. And hopefully we see more change happening. The good fight continues on....

The other notable event would be the KL Bar Charity Night. SYB performed once more. I should be blogging about this as a tribute to our cover band. But here's the nutshell of it. It was a great night. We played our hearts out. The crowd was supportive and enjoyed our music (hopefully) and we hope we will continue to play for more events in the future. 

 We played a few covers. 6 in all. The list goes like this:-
1. King of Wishful Thinking by Go West
2. Rolling in the Deep by Adele
3. Don't Stop Believing by Journey 
4. Zombie by Cranberries
5. That's What You Get by Paramore and 
6. I Dare You to Move by Switchfoot

But here's 3 of the videos. I will perhaps post the rest up in another posts. If anything we're just a cover band, so we're not perfect :D



The lovely Raja Nadia Sabrina was our guest singer for two of the songs. This one is Zombie



Paramore's That's What you Get

and then below, Swtichfoot's Dare You to Move



Hopefully I get all the videos of SYB and I can post up a full song list in my next post. Whether you like it or not! Muahahah!

By the way, we also performed at the KLCC Plenary Hall. Michael Bolton held a concert there 3 weeks later. Just saying. 

Also notable was my trip to South Korea. It was an experience, culturally and err socially. Its a fact, there are many good looking people in Korea, and how do they all look so good? :) Well........it's your guess. But I enjoyed every bit of the trip; from the food I've tasted, from the wonderful places we visited and the people we meet along the way. Heck, given a chance I would go back there once more. Then again, there are many places I've yet to step foot on. Still the idea is an idea kept in view. 
We traveled cheaply and backpacked as much as we can. It made the whole trip even more worthwhile. 

Now here's the funny thing. Up this part, I can no longer posts any pictures. Probably I overused my quota of pictures for 2012. Hahaha. Oh well, just my luck. 

Oh yeah. And St Michael's had it's centenary dinner finally. It was a gathering of familiar faces. Ancient and young. Alumnis of La Salle who made their way from all over not only the country but from the globe as well. We gathered, we sang, we feast and we drank. And I'm reminded of why it is possibly the best school on Earth, ahahah (We Michaelians are a proud lot). And it has been an honour to have spend the best (and worst days) of my studying life in St Michael. 

To that I say, Quis Ut Deus (who is like God?)!

World Events 

Obama wins the presidential elections and will yet serve another term. Joy to the Democrats. Not so the Republicans. 

There were tragic events as well. Notably, two shocking and shooting events in the US. 
The first in Aurora Colorado where a lone gunman fired into a movie theatre whilst showing the Dark Knight Rises. The gunman was arrested. The identity of the person was later revealed to be James Eagen Holmes. His trial is still and on-going event. 

And then there was the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Reminiscent of the Columbine massacre in 1999, only this time, it's in an elementary school. The death toll and fatalities was about 20 odd children and 2 adults. The lone gunman, Adam Lanza committed suicide after the shooting before help arrived. 



Whilst I read about this and vicariously experience the tragedy, one can not help but ponder once again on what is it that drives some people to the edge. Over these episodes, questions arose, on whether gun enforcement should be stricter, or whether these gunmen are themselves victim of social ills? 

In India in December, 2012, notably the brutal sexual assault of an medical student on board a bus (her friend was assaulted as well) and thrown off a moving bus has sparked outrage in the heart of India. It was one of the most crushing and heartbreaking news of 2012, on how the student cling on for life after the assault only to die 13 days later in a Singaporean Hospital. We can only hope that this event, would have sparked not just an outrage but also spark reforms on what seems to be the chauvinistic attitude towards women. Not just in India, but around the world, to strip down the chauvinistic attitude that men in some archaic nations (including ours) have always harboured and to pound in them the humility and respect that they owe women around the world. 

Ok, I felt kinda depressed penning down the last bit. 

On a sunnier note.....

Sports

On the sporting front, Manchester United lost the title to their noisy neighbours, Manchester City. Was it shocking? Not really. The most shocking thing was of course how United lost the lead whilst ahead by quite a margin by losing game after game. But the title was tightly contested nevertheless and in the end, the title was won on goal difference. 
We were in South Korea in the district of Itaewon (not many EPL fans in Korea I reckon) drinking our beers and drowned our sorrows when QPR conveniently lost to City in the dying minutes. A draw would have sufficed but at the end of the day it was not to be. 
So the noisy neighbours take the 2011/2012 title and United are left reeling. Of course, now, with the acquisition of Robin Van Persie at the expense of Arsenal, things are looking bright once more. Lets hope it stays that way. 

And then our Dato' Lee Chong Wei put up a gallant fight but was unable to deny his arch-nemesis and friend, Lin Dan of China from taking home the gold medal at the Olympics. 
That was my highlight of the Olympics. :) Wished I could remember the other medalists, but not at the top of my head right now. 

And Spain prove itself to be a formidable force once more in football by trashing the Italians 4-0 in the finals. Not only are they the World Champions but they remain the unbeaten champs of European football. A feat not easy or unprecedented even, that a team would win 3 consecutive championships. Spain has come of age and are no longer playing second fiddle to the powerhouses of old, i.e. Germany and Italy. I supported the Netherlands in this one. But they couldn't kick themselves into second gear and bowed out horribly without any point. They came with great expectations but collapsed under the burden of that expectation. 

Below are the highlights of the final. Watch how Italy is made mincemeat by the Spaniards.



Conclusion

The ancient Mayans predicted that the world would end in 21.12.12. It didn't. We survived the 'apocalypse'. But having said that, we are in our last days anyway, so it's just a matter of time.
But anyway, with 2012 gone and I've resigned from my current job, changes will come, rest assured. New challenges will be ever present. And I will continue blogging as long as I can with the things that interest me. 


And I end 2012 with this:-

2012, an epic, I have not,

But a rhyme or two,

A ponder, a thought.

It brought the worst,

And the best of times,

In friendships and fellowships,

And brotherhoods that bind.

Events that ensue,

Of wakes and weddings,

Of life and death,

Of funerals and blessings.

The successes and joy,  

Together we shared,

And tragedies that ensued,

In solidarity to bear.

Of hopes and dreams,

That may have fall short,

Of lessons we learnt,

Let them not be forgot.

So we bring new hope,

In the days to come,

Of planned resolutions,

May they be done.

As I shut the doors,

For a year gone by,

And I usher in a new year,

With a smile and a sigh.

A memorable 2012,

Has it at all not been,

Happy New Years to all,

Happy 2013.

My grammar sucks. Bite me.

Homegrown talent Part 3 - Kendrick K

I wrote a post on Malaysian homegrown talent not too long ago. It was a series of two posts. 

Time and time again, we find that musical talent in Malaysia is simply abundant. 

Unfortunately, I'm really not too sure why the local music scene is not as thriving compared to other countries, even Asian ones like Korea (Gangnam style for example).

Maybe that's cause we are all feeding on the mass mainstream market; people like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyruses to name a few.

Because of that, it's really encouraging news to know that once in a while, a Malaysian creates more than ripples in the music industry. 

Yuna did it. We Malaysians were thoroughly excited when we saw her performance on Conan O' Brien. Even Rihanna tweets about her. Then of course there is also Zee Avi. 

More Malaysian talent on the way to bigger things perhaps. I'm always a supporter of local Malaysian music :) Or at least the music that I'm interested in. 

So there, I introduce a new, up and coming talent. 

Kendrick Koh. He is a friend and a fellow church member. 

His influences are mostly John Mayer, Jason Mraz (though I often tell him that there is more to life out there besides the two J's) and very much into fingerstyle guitar playing and some other Indie stuff. I never knew those methods were called fingerstyle playing (Always thought it was just normal plucking! AHAHA). Then again, I'm a noob at the guitar.

So here's two videos, covers of Indie favourites Foster the People and MGMT (I'm not sure if MGMT is defined as indie though, but what the hell).

The videos are nicely done, with the curtains blowing from the wind and all the dramatics. Heheh. So, Enjoy.

Kids - MGMT

 Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People 

Hey, I don't get paid for promoting Malaysian music. But if there is talent and it's worth sharing, I'm all for it :)

And if you want more, below is the album trailer for the upcoming Tempered Mental album. Exciting stuff!

Gangnam Style goes to Gotham

You know, sometimes there are music videos that you really love to hate? That kind that is so bad that it becomes so good? That was what Rebecca Black's video did. That went viral. And that song became the Thank God It's Friday anthem. Catchy and lyrically stupid. But who cares? The sillier the better right?

This year, the video it's the Oppa! Gangnam Style video that's viral. So bad that it;s good? Not really. I think this is actually really good! 

Humour, parodied events and good looking ladies aplenty, what's there not to like about this video? Muahaha.

Never knew who PSY was, but he was quite a famous rapper and character in South Korea. I wonder how I missed that during my 10 days in Korea. Then again, though I like some Korean girl bands, I didn't really caught on with the K-pop rave. 

Anyway, I like this video a lot cause it doesn't take itself too seriously. So, enjoy it while the waves are riding high. :)

So riding on the Dark Knight Rises wave, there is still buzz with the Bat. And While I was searching in youtube for the video above, this was what I found instead. 

I gotta say, there are many Gangnam and Batman parody videos. But this is probably one of the better ones (together with the Call Me Maybe video starring Batman) 

Haha, it's about time the Asian wave hit the global market. You know you made it big when people start parodying your stuff. Yes. Even Rebecca Black was big. 

At one point in time :)

Avenged Awesome Sevenfold

This has been a long time coming, but I finally did this concert review. 

So i missed the L'arc En Ciel concert on 28 April. I mean, I was really gearing up for that. Listening to the old stuff, buying the new stuff, downloading the other stuff, looking up the lyrics, though I have absolutely no idea what they were singing (without translation of course). I mean really, I wanted to go for that. But then Bersih 3.0 came and went. 

My only saving grace was the Avenged Sevenfold concert on 29 April. I was half hearted into it. Daren gave me an entire mp3 CD worth of Avenged Sevenfold songs. I listened to some, but I was listening more to L'arc En Ciel songs just so that I'm familiar with them. 

OK. So I listened to some songs from the A7X CD and there were some that I really liked. Afterlife, Beast and the Harlot, Nightmare, Buried Alive. And then Colin introduced me to the really epic musical sounding piece titled A little Piece of Heaven. Sounded corny but when the metal bits kicked in, it was hardrockin'....and funny at the same time. But that was about it. Nothing more than that. 

So i went to the concert without knowing the names of the band members. OK, to be honest, I heard of Zacky Vengeance and M Shadows. But that was about it. And the ex-drummer was called the Rev and it was a pity he passed on. The new drummer is this dude from a band of Christians called Confide. Really awesome stuff, that Confide. Daren and Colin told me that his name was quite hard to pronounce. 

So, we queued up in Sunway Lagoon. We waited and waited and waited. And finally we were in! a good 45 minutes later, but this is standard la. Queued even longer for Muse! :)

We bought the RM98 tickets, which is the cheapest and effectively, we were at the far end from the stage. Zone B and Zone C (where we were at) was only separated by a metal barrier. Those that you see in your school canteen, ok, at least my school canteen, just to make sure the students  formed a uniformed line when buying food. That kinda metal barrier. 

Love Me Butch opened and the energy was intense. I thought their set was pretty good and I was headbanging to Generation SOS when it was played. Unfortunately, the crowd behind was not so responsive. I figured that they didnt know who Love Me Butch was. Nu metal or post metal they are deemed. But whatever their called, they knew how to rock! :)
Once they were done, then it was back to the waiting game and this time for the main event. 

Whilst waiting, I turned to look at where we were after 30 mins and suddenly Colin was in the front! Daren and I were quite puzzled cause 3 young punks were suddenly standing in front of us. But it was ok, they were cool.

And suddenly a bunch of kids were standing behind me. They probably are too young to even drive. But one of them, the skinny douchebag, was ultra irritating to say the least. He kept shouting the stupidest things like "M Shadows! I love you. I wanna suck your.................(let your imagination run wild here)..!" 

"I wanna have your babies!". HIs friends thought it was funny. And then when they played Metallica songs, he sang the Kirk Hammet's guitar solo bits, annoyingly! He started playing air drums and said to his friends, "hey man...uh uh.....look I'm a one man band...uh uh....heh heh  heh..you think it's easy being a one man band? Uh Uh heh Heh..!" DUDE IF IT AINT EASY THEN SHUT THE HECK UP!! I told him to shut it when he started encroaching my space and nudged me a bit doing his stupid air drum impersonation. 

Now, I've been to many concerts, probably more than this punk right here and I know human proximity is pretty high. That's fine. What's not fine is stupid douchebag punks who think they are funny but are not. 

Even his friends eventually got tired of his antics and just asked him if he still has any energy left for A7X. That didn't stop him though. In my head, I would have loved to elbow him when the band starts playing. You know jumping in the euphoria and then Ooopps..."sorry that's your head right?" :D. Of course common sense held me back. 

And then the band started playing. Nightmare was the song If I was not mistaken! And what an intro it was! The skinny douchebag screamed and into my ear no less! I actually felt the pain! Dumb kid! By then everyone was jumping like crazy and the mosh had begun! We were too busy jumping and headbanging when suddenly the barriers collapsed and we all suddenly rushed into Zone B, which is the RM198 area and we were so much closer to the band!

(My utmost sympathy goes to those who bought the RM198 ticks who now had to share the space with us, the cheapskates :)too bad..) 

The songs then kept coming. Critical Acclaim was next, followed by Welcome to the Family. I didn't know the song titles so I had to keep asking Daren. Earlier he fell behind because he helped a guy to get on his feet and from being trampled by the crowd after the barriers collapsed. Such heroism :) 

Other songs were played. Things got emotional when they played So Far Away. A song for their fallen comrade. It was emotional as the crowd lighted their lighters and started swaying their hands. The continued with assault after assault of metal goodness. And when they played the Beast and the Harlot, the crowd was in a frenzy. The video below was taken by my Iphone.

It took magical powers to even hold the phone when the moshing began. And then they played the twisted musical of a love song, A Little Piece of Heaven. The crowd was alive. And the chorus was resounding, 

It was also a good thing that M Shadows was really putting effort in conversing with the crowd. It was nice of him to try to chat the crowd up, like asking if we have been to the United States. And if So, they would take us to Bat Country and the riffs started for that one :).

They did 3 encore songs; Fiction, God hates Us and Unholy Confessions.I know the crowd desired further.

I personally left the concert wanting more. Though I wished I participated in the mosh pit but I know I'm not getting any younger. And besides, I had a trip to Korea to catch so, ending up with further torn ligaments (I have a torn ACL as we speak) was the last thing in my mind. The energies of youth. How I miss thee.

From a non-believer, I probably left the concert a disciple :) Why? Because I liked their music :- heavy chugging but melodic riffs. Metalcore plus harmonies and double guitar solos are always my thing. So, I missed L'arc En Ciel but this makes up for it big time.

And so, I leave thee with pictures from the A7X Malaysian concert.

Our night was truly Avenged......Sevenfold :)