Being anonymous is tiring. One of the reasons why I stopped blogging the last time was because I treated this blog like work. Well that’ll have to change if I wanna get my moneys worth out of this domain that I bought. I’ll still be reviewing music, but there’s gonna be alot of personal stuff up here from now on.

I start training on March 2nd. Sigh. I don’t wanna go dammit. I wanna bum around some more. I don’t need the money!! Actually.. I do lah. Whatever. This week and the next will have to be pretty darn happening to make up for all the WORK I’m gonna be doing.

Well, I’m back! Aaand.. I’ve got 20 thousand spam comments. This is gonna be fun.

Narrow Stairs. Death Cab’s second album for Atlantic and sixth total. These guys are serious legends. For a bunch of indie guys to have developed a worldwide cult following AND succesfully stayed together for 11 years is just amazing. Flipping off radio stations with the release of an 8 minute long single about a nice guy turning stalker, this album marks an attempt at reasserting indieness for Death Cab.

Ben Gibbard is the epitome of existential angst. If Death Cab hadn’t made it this big, his picture would be in the encyclopedia entry for Starving Abstract Artist. From the first track on the album, Bixby Canyon Bridge, even though it’s about going to California (where he wrote the album) and trying to commune with the spirit of dead author Jack Kerouac, who stayed in the same cabin as Gibbard did to write Big Sur, you can hear all the emotion just oozing out of his voice.

With track titles like “You Can Do Better Than Me” and “The Ice Is Getting Thinner”, you can probably tell that Gibbard gets trampled on a whole lot in relationships. This love-wariness isn’t apparent only from the track titles though, as I mentioned earlier. But even for a guy like me, who frequently goes through the same thing, the angst just gets a bit too much at times. Not that this is a bad thing though. I’ve honestly never heard an artist who manages to convey angst so clearly and effectively.

Musically, Gibbard made the right choice recruiting the bunch of guys he did when Death Cab was just starting out. Unique, as is the norm with indie acts, is an understatement here. While there aren’t any strange instruments on this album save for the 60s organ on You Can Do Better Than Me, they’ve been known to use things like a glockenspiel.

Despite me gushing non stop about this record, it isn’t one for casual listening. It takes a few listens to grow on you, but once it does it’s true love.

No Sunlight

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I thought I could get in free to this one. Thanks to a dear friend who DIDN’T ASK my wallet is now 2 red bills lighter. At least I got a free beer, courtesy of John Lau from Munkee Music, introduced to me by the same dear friend who forgot to ask.

First up were Bohol. Who don’t have a Myspace, don’t have a blog, don’t have email. And, yes. They have.. Wait for it. Waaait for it. A bagpipe. Yep. Played by a Punjabi dude. Talk about cross-cultural. Other than the shock factor, these guys seriously weren’t that impressive. Three chords and a song, throw in some crazy leads and the bagpipe. That about sums this act up.

Next were indie rockers Ferns, who’ve got a track out on the OC and didn’t get a single cent out of it. Kena con by mat salleh. Even though they were without a drummer, they played an excellent set. Lead singer Warren honestly reminds me of Ben Gibbard from Death Cab.

After Ferns were two bands that sang songs in Mandarin, which I seriously cannot understand. The second one, J4N played well though. Good stage presence/crowd rapport. I particularly enjoyed the song which had a title meaning Swallow Tail Butterfly when translated.

After these guys were legends Furniture. These guys just took the stage and made it their bitch. The whole crowd just shut up. Heavy soft music, if you can get what that means.

As usual, I couldn’t stay till the end. This one was supposed to be a small private party, showcasing Munkee Music’s label artists. And yeah, they got that down pat.

Oh how I would LOVE to be one of these guys. But the realisation sets in. I live in the far east. Also, I can’t help but mention the change of focus. This blog is gonna be 90% Malaysian stuff now. I’ll travel to the ends of the earth if I have to. I’ll get those obscure EPs.

I normally don’t give bad reviews. I don’t see the point. But I figure it’s time to pop that cherry, especially since I’ve found a band that pisses me off.

Poking around on Facebook, I saw an event called SilentScream Chillout Sessions. I actually misread the band name, I thought this was Silent Scenery. So I continued to poke around, and ended up on the bands profile. This, of course, led me to their MySpace. Influences? Dream Theater. WAH! Linkin Park. Hrmm.. Daughtry. O. God. Label? Reshmonu Records. Reshmonu Records?! Sigh. Back to their facebook, where they’ve posted almost their entire album. Review time!

You know how, when you’re listening to the radio, and a song starts playing which makes you change the channel you feel like your ears are gonna start bleeding? These guys have recorded an entire album full of songs like that. I actually thought they had one good track, Never Say Goodbye, pretty amazing considering the impression they gave. That is, until I listened on and found out they recorded that same song twice, riffs and all, except they sang it in Malay. Talk about filler. I hear absolutely no Dream Theater in their music. Makes me think they listed them in their influences just to look cool. And let me tell you, Linkin Park and Daughtry are about as far from a good combo as you can get.

Frankly, I’m not surprised. The album was produced by Reshmonu, and if anyone knows how to make a pop record, its this guy. It’s times like these I get reminded of how my musical taste is so different from the majority of people out there, and how indie music is indie for a reason. Is this really what it takes to make people like your music? Not only do they make shitty music, they get awards for it! 3, no less.

I’m not going to put any of their songs or an album cover up. I refuse to taint my server space. Go look at their myspace.

Taken from their facebook, “It would be hard to pigeon hole this album into a specific genre of music.” I’ll pigeon hole you! Right now! Shit.

Black Kids. Formed in 2006, these guys were named in Rolling Stone’s top ten artists to watch in 2008. This is their debut album, released under Columbia in the US and under Almost Gold in the UK. Their music does sound more at home in the UK though, and thats probably the reason why this album debuted at #5 in the UK charts as opposed to #127 on the US billboard.

I don’t care much for the hype this band managed to create about themselves just from their Myspace. It is, however, justified after taking a listen to this debut effort of theirs. While there isn’t a shortage of bands like theirs, meaning indie bands that sound like The Cure, they’ve definitely shown that they’ve got what it takes to rise above the crowd. Of course, it could just be luck.

Sounding very 80s from the start of the album, Hit the Heartbrakes would be more at home playing in a disco somewhere during that era than blaring out of this blogger’s relatively tiny computer speakers. Reggie Youngblood sounds like a clone of Robert Smith albeit with a very shaky English accent, managed to make me laugh a few times. Americans.

All comparisons aside, Dawn Watley and Ali Youngblood do a very good job of giving the band their sound, keyboards complementing Reggie’s relaxed guitar style almost perfectly. If I am right in thinking that even indie labels moderate an artist’s first album heavily, then I’d be intrigued to see how their sound progresses in later albums.

Listening to this album definitely reinforces the idea that a band is greater than the sum of their influences. Far greater, in this case.

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By writing this I suppose I’ve revealed that I’m Christian. Randomly reading Christian stuff on the net, I came across this. Reading or hearing things like that always sickens me.

Many a parent has breathed a sigh of relief, hearing the sound of The Backstreet Boys, N’Sync or Britney Spears “blaring” from their children’s stereo. “Thank God, they’re not listening to Marilyn Manson, or some other ‘hellion’ but sweet ‘love songs’”. We’ll, mom, I’ve got some sad news — it’s not all sweet ‘love songs’ – in fact, some are — nasty “lust songs”. Carnal lust that would probably make Marilyn Manson proud. Words “etched” into your impressionable young son or daughters minds — that would make any sane mom or dad “go ballistic”.

The Backstreet Boys?! N’Sync?! Honestly? If I knew where this guy preached I’d walk up to him in the middle of service and beat him silly.

I could never stand the holier-than-thou attitude displayed by 99% of the members of the various Protestant denominations. At least most Catholics are ignorant (I was raised one, so I’d definitely know), so their arrogance can be written off as stupidity.

But The Backstreet Boys?!

Before you start thinking things like “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about”, I’m just gonna state that as a matter of fact, I do know my shit. There’s no need to explain how or what my credentials are, just take it on good faith.

This guy even goes on to write that Christian Rock is satanic. Apparently, not singing about Jesus is satanic. All I can do as I read this is sigh.

Artistic expression is one of God’s great gifts to mankind, along with the imagination, domination of the animal kingdom, and girls. Just because it’s used outside of what is accepted by conservative Christians as “Entertainment” doesn’t make it satanic. The moment some of these people hear a distorted guitar, they’ve whipped out their mental crucifix and are mentally cowering in fear in a mental corner, spewing litanies and prayers to cover their mind, body and soul with the Blood. Exaggeration, you think? HAH.

And now, The Backstreet Boys?!

Since abandoning Catholicism, I’ve switched churches more times than I can remember. Everywhere I go, I see the same attitude, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve partially given up on church. I do however, occasionally play in church bands. Said to me by one worship leader before service a long time ago, “Make sure you’re right with God before you play. If you aren’t right with God, you won’t play well”. Slap you la. If you’re wondering, I played perfectly that service. I smoke, and am therefore in a perpetual state of wrongness with God. If the ability to play or compose music were dependent on your status with God in the present, no one except Christians would be able to play musical instruments. Call it arrogance on my part, but these guys really need some sense knocked into them.

I have a million different things to say about churchgoers who piss me off, but since this is a music blog, I’ll save it for when anyone wants to ask me in person.

You want a real satanic song? Here’s Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife by Mastodon. If the guy who wrote those two articles heard this one, he’d probably shit himself. I’ll post the lyrics after the song, to give you a clearer idea of why I say this is a real satanic song.

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Don’t talk, watch!
Don’t talk, watch!
You came here. Watch it.
Don’t like it? Walk out.
We still have all your fucking money.

Do not nudge, kick or jiggle the seat in front of you.
I’m sitting there!
I am everywhere at once
and I will cut you up.

If you make out here,
I will cut your lips and tongue
from your head
with a linoleum knife.

Do not explain the plot.
If you don’t understand, then you should not be here.
Your money is now our money
and we will spend it on drugs.

Do not crinkle your food wrappers loudly.
Be considerate to others,
or I will bite your torso
and give you a disease.

Did you bring your baby?
Babies don’t watch this.
Take the seed outside. Leave it in the streets.
Run over it after the show.

If I see you videotaping this movie,
Satan will rain down your throat with hot acid
and dissolve your testicles
and turn your guts into snakes.

This is a copyrighted movie for Time Warner.
If I find that you’ve sold it on eBay,
I will break into your house
and tear your wife in half.

Five straight days of drinking and coming home seeing double don’t exactly spell update success. I’m still recovering, as you might be able to tell by reading on, but heres one, finally! The Living End are an Aussie band, and this is their fifth studio album, released under label Dew Process. Weird name for a label, I know. The band though! I thought there was nothing good that came out of Australia except The Vines. And my good good friends studying there coming out with excellent degrees of course.

A refreshing take on melodic/quiet punk rock with a healthy mix of alternative and a lil bit of ska, White Noise is a good listen for a quiet night at home. If punk rock is your idea of quiet, of course. Seems like the band have toned down ALOT since their debut 10 years back.

I remember the days when I listened to nothing but punk. After a while it all gets pretty same-y. The Living End manage to spice it up a bit by throwing ska and even some rockabilly in on the album. Starting off slow with two rather mediocre tracks How Do We Know and Raise The Alarm, the album quickly takes a turn at the third track, White Noise. There are several good songs here, noteworthy ones, other than the title track, being Moment In The Sun, Kid and my favorite track, Sum of Us, a nice ska surprise on this otherwise pure punk album. Another good song is the bonus track, Listen Up Suzie, a weird rockabilly track which made me pick this album for review, added to the surprise factor of the album.

I have a feeling The Living End would be alot better live than on this album. Live in a bar. Yes. Mmm. Hopefully they go on a tour and come here so I’ll get to see them. I’m not putting one of their punk tracks on here. Rather, here is Sum Of Us, a possible future stoner anthem. Enjoy.

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After a week of listening to oodles of indie and progressive stuff, it’s time to go back to my roots. Good old-fashioned heavy metal. I’m not reviewing an old album, this is new. Released this year under Interscope Records, Light From Above is Black Tide’s debut album. And let me tell you, after reading up a bit about the band, they win purely on shock value. I’d listen to them anyway, they are good. Shock value is just the most appropriate term I could come up with. You’ll see why in a moment.

I saw the video for Shockwave one late night at AsiaCafe, while sipping chinese tea and talking about how guys always get screwed over in relationships. Once that video came on, I was no longer part of the conversation. A bunch of punks, wearing shorts and converse shoes singing stadium rock. Wouldn’t YOU drift off?

I normally don’t focus on the past of a band at all when reviewing, its largely irrelevant to their music in the now. But I just have to say all this. Black Tide was formed in 2004. Singer/guitarist Gabriel Garcia is 15. You read right. Fifteen. That means, among other things, that he was in a heavy metal band at the age of 11. Eleven. That puts alot of aspiring guitar gods/solo chauvinist pigs to shame. Take one listen and you will realise why.

Opening with the excellent single Shockwave, Light From Above is literally a blast from the past. Every single one of their songs has a crazy solo in it. Listening to the low-quality version of Shockwave from my puny laptop headphones, I actually thought guitarist Alex Nunez’s solos were too fast to hear. That’s how blinding this album is. Blinding music, I hear you skeptics say? I laugh in the face of your unbelief. My bandmates and I actually fear we might be spirited away into the seventh heaven if we manage to jam Shockwave, deserving admission only because of musical virtuosity. I’m surprised this hasn’t happened to the band themselves.

Black Tide have toured on Ozzfest 2007, when Gabriel Garcia was just 14. They are set to play in the Mayhem music festival which announces a lineup including Avenged Sevenfold, Dragonforce and Mastodon. I’d give my left pinkie toe to be able to go see them play.

Boxing these legends in the making in with words just isn’t fair, so I’m gonna end this review and allow you to listen to the Gods among Men that are Black Tide. Before you do that though, turn your speakers up as high as they’ll go and DO NOT close your eyes. You might die.

Shockwave

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