Spin Hot Pursuit

Spin mag is partnering with MySpace-hopetobe Music Nation to present Hot Pursuit. It's the latest carrot dangled before the starving unsigned bands of the world—ok, just America in this case—that promises one winner not one, but three goodies. Namely:

1. A development deal with Epic Records and Music Nation's label Original Signal.
2. A slot at Spin's 2008 SxSW event.
3. A song inclusion on an upcoming 2k sports video game.
   

Neato, sweeto. But... sigh. Why can't someone offer something that truly kicks ass for once. Like, how about a competition where the winning band gets a Lockhead fighter jet, complete with six Russian nuclear warheads, a book of NATO passwords and a one-year subscription to Espionage Monthly. Oh, and a record deal.

Anyways, while I order my secretary to start arranging for breakfast with Kim Jong Il tomorrow, check out spin.musicnation.com for more info. Apparently they've got Perry Ferrell (Jane's Addition, Satellite Party) and Saddle Creek Records-mainstay Tim Kasher (Cursive, The Good Life) to join the judging panel. Once again, judges for my contest would have invited Fabio. A dude that chiseled has to have some world domination ambitions.

The Good Life - You Don't Feel Like Home to Me (from Help Wanted Nights)
Satellite Party - Woman In The Window (from Ultra Payloaded)

British Sea Power offers free download, new EP

Brighton's finest sailors are finally back.

After a hiatus of nearly two-years without a peep, the band will be releasing a new five-song digital EP titled Krankenhaus? on October 8, with their third album Do You Like Rock Music? on schedule for a January 2008 release.

Yes, I am well aware they aren't sailors. Unless they've taken to think that skinny/gaunt British art-types make better sailors than the brutish louts from the pubs. In that case I would make a lousy sailor, seeing as I once slapped Ultraman around for eating his lunch too quickly.

To wet the appetite of hardcore fans in need of some hot and heavy soldier-loving, they've released a free download of the EP's opening track 'Atom' on their website. But why bother with that when we have it here so just go to the link and bomb away.

British Sea Power - Atom (from Krankenhaus?)

New Release: Muxu - Show Us Your Weak Side EP

My friend's momma always thought me that nothing comes free. "The only thing you're gonna get free is your coffin. Then again it's probably bought with your money. Only thing is you're not the one handing over the cash." Smart lady that one.

So I've never expected anything to come free. Not even when they hand out little sliced sausages at supermarkets with the large sign 'Free Samples' in the background.

But Malaysian ambient/IDM-duo Muxu have proved me wrong. That for the last 30 years, I have been living my life incorrectly. That I should expect things for free sometimes, even complete downloadable EPs. They have just released a six-song EP titled Show Us Your Weak Side, through Monotonik, a web-based label that offers free downloads.

Man, what an ingenious idea. People should do this more and offer their albums up for free so that we can download them and spend our money on better things like red sports cars and fat juicy steaks. What did you say? P2P? What is that?

Wait, a minute, that's illegal. Sorry dudes and hot dudettes, this here is model citizen 102. If I want an album, I actually buy it off a rack. Or have you forgotten how CDs look like you chump? And even if I had to have a CD and I have not a penny to spare, I just beat it off some smaller rich kid. You know why? Cause I am a law abiding citizen.

Track list:

1. Hishiko
2. Let's Walk On The Frozen Sea
3. Meeting Snow During Summer
4. Morning Breeze & Talking Beans
5. Moving At 30
6. People Running Away

You can get the entire EP here.

B-Side of the Week - Blitzkrieg Bop

The Films
Blitzkrieg Bop (from the Belt Loops single)
(7Hz)

They say that a Blitzkrieg is a military strategy that involves bombing your enemy into the stone age and then moving your troops in so quick, your enemy will be thrown into a state of heebie jeebies. It's true. Everybody uses it, not just the Germans. The immediate devastation caused by the initial shelling, followed by rapid infantry takeover stuns the seiged into a state of confusion and chaos.

This brilliant offensive was the cornerstone of many a military leader's success, from Erwin Rommel's destruction of the British in Africa to George S Patton's mighty Third Army's triumph in France.

And I!

Yeah, I too masterminded a blitzkrieg, over a battlefield of galah one day. I had someone cut down the mango tree next to the sepak takraw court and as soon as it fell on our classmates, we charged forward and stabbed them all to death with Kilometrico pens. And as our young friends lay bleeding in the warm sun of recess, we trampled over their tumblers and schoolbags towards the triumph of reaching the other side. The taste of victory, mixed with blood-stained BM2000 school shoes, remains among my sweetest memories. Long live me!

The Films - Blitzkrieg Bop

New Hot Chip song download

On one hand, corporates who partner with bands to release a free song for mass download are positively annoying. Like, why can't the suits stay cooped up in their 88th floor boardrooms and let the basement-bound demographic do their own MP3 hunting?

But then you get something like 'I Became A Volunteer', a song from Hot Chip's third album (tentatively titled Shot Down In Flames), which the band have recently announced that they are giving away as a partnership together with EMI. It's got all those irresistible electro-pop squiggles, counterpointed vocals and an outro tailor-stitched to evoke woozy images of Daft Punk playing at your house.

So what's a torn music listener to do? Simple. Grab your art-purist side, chokeslam him through the coffee table, and pour a bottle of Chivas on his Monet-doting mug. It's your right to be a sellout.

To read more, click here.

Hot Chip - I Became A Volunteer

Gig-gles: Crossborders September 07

I'll put forth an educated guess that Plainsunset's PDAs have been on constant "battery low" status over past few months. After all, Singapore's pop-rock icons have been busier than bees who mine honey for a fat-rumped queen. They closed a Baybeats night, toured the Philippines and prepped (and are still prepping) album number four. And now, they're making the 400km-trip north to acquaint the glossy Laundry Bar crowd with their Hitz.fm-friendly tunes. In addition, the band are re-issuing their seminal sophomore, Love Songs For The Emotionally Wounded, featuring three bonus tracks in line with the album's sixth anniversary.

Yeah, I know. Sixth anniversary? Sixth? Gee, like, screw the convenience of round numbers! I mean, 9/11 just commemorated its sixth anniversary. And so did my pencil holder. His name is Walter. I'm so proud of his tenacity to endure endless hours of me shoving half-sharpened pencils down his throat, that I'm in the midst of re-releasing him as a sixth anniversary re-issue. He'll come in 297 colours, digipak packaging, and with a multitouch screen and two bonus shelves specially for my out-of-shape paper clips. Seriously, you should check him out.

DETAILS
Venue: Laundry Bar, The Curve
Date: September, 27 2007
Time: 9pm
Admission: Free
Lineup: Plainsunset, The Otherside Orchestra, Lightcraft

Plainsunset - Immature (from Love Songs For The Emotionally Wounded)

Word for the week: Halo

Because...

The XBox 360's flagship game Halo 3 comes out today in the States. No, it ain't coming out in an Ellen Degeneres sense. Though if it did, I'm not sure the fanboys would peacefully warm up to their iconic Master Chief sporting an indigo armour with fuchsia patterns, nibbling on samosas and and powdering those darlin' aliens' faces with MAC's latest line. I, on the other hand, wouldn't stop laughing my ass off.

The Cure - Halo (from Join The Dots)
'Friday I'm In Love' is the darling, but methinks this B-side to that single is the true heart-tugger.

Gillian Welch - Red Clay Halo (from Time (The Revelator))
With this deft, self-assured bluegrass ditty, Welch celebrates the frumps of the world.

Appleseed Cast - Mountain Halo (from Peregrine)
In the company of Peregrine's emo shoegazers, 'Mountain Halo's industrial chunks pierce like nine inch nails.

The Bruces - The Electric Halo (from Shining Path)
Lambchop guitarist Alex McManus's side project strums a belly-dancing banjo in the key of Wilco.

Alice Cooper - Halo Of Flies (from Killer)
Closet-Christian shock rocker apes Julie Andrews mid-song. If he were an Austrian nun scampering the hills, I'd join that monastery yesterday.

Hang that P2P, hang it ...

Soulseek coming up with zilch search hits these days? Bastards on BitComet slashing off your downloads because they hate your nick? Well fret not ye denizens of music-piracy, Sordo is here to save the day, snog the chick and err ... blow some buildings up.

No no, Sordo isn't where Sauron's cake-baking, SUV-driving cousin lives, but is a site that lists full albums that are available for download on those upload sites (Yousendit and its kin). Yep, it had to happen some time, when people figure out that the capacity offered by these sites is probably good enough host more than a few complete albums.

Excellent full albums on offer at first glance even includes the rare likes of The Twilight Sad's brilliant LP Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters and even My Bloody Valentine's full discography (including the EPs). Not exactly for Maroon 5 fans, this one.

And while the user bandwidth is limited (roughly two full album downloads and you're maxed), just wait for 45 minutes (just about) and it resets and you can download away again.

Go here and be amazed.

The Twilight Sad - And She Would Darken the Memory (from Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters)

Let's get lyrical, lyrical: Counting Crows - Anna Begins

My friend assures me its all or nothing
I am not worried- I am not overly concerned
My friend implores me for one time only,
Make an exception. I am not not worried
Wrap her up in a package of lies
Send her off to a coconut island
I am not worried - I am not overly concerned
With the status of my emotions
Oh, she says, were changing
But we're always changing
It does not bother me to say this isn't love
Because if you don't want to talk about it then it isn't love
And I guess I'm going to have to live with that
But, I'm sure there's something in a shade of gray
Or something in between
And I can always change my name if that's what you mean
My friend assures me its all or nothing`
But I am not really worried
I am not overly concerned
You try to tell your self the things you try tell your self to make
Yourself forget
To make your self forget
I am not worried
If it's love she said, then were gonna have to think about the consequences
She cant stop shaking and I can't stop touching her and ...
This time when kindness falls like rain
It washes her away and Anna begins to change her mind
These seconds when I'm shaking leave me shuddering
For days she says.
And I'm not ready for this sort of thing
But I'm not gonna break
And I'm not going to worry about it anymore
I'm not gonna bend. and I'm not gonna break and
I'm not gonna worry about it anymore
It seems like I should say as long as this is love...
But its not all that easy so maybe I should just
Snap her up in a butterfly net
Pin her down on a photograph album
I am not worried
I've done this sort of thing before
But then I start to think about the consequences
Because I don't get no sleep in a quiet room and...

The time when kindness falls like rain
It washes me away and Anna begins to change my mind
And every time she sneezes I believe its love
And oh lord.... I'm not ready for this sort of thing
She's talking in her sleep, it's keeping me awake
And Anna begins to toss and turn
And every word is nonsense but I understand it and
Oh lord. I'm not ready for this sort of thing
Her kindness bangs a gong
Its moving me along and Anna begins to fade away
Its chasing me away. She disappears, and oh lord I'm not ready for this sort of thing.

Why this song? Because sometimes a song can encapsulate exactly how you feel right down to the smallest details. It looks like nonsense to most, but when you have 'Anna' sitting opposite you on a dinner table, it makes all the sense in the universe.

Unless of course you're claiming that the song that encapsulates how you're feeling is that theme song to Ultraman Mebius. In which case I may be forced to give you a trophy and lobby for you to be Time's 'Man of the Year'. Because really, how can anyone be more awesome than you?

Counting Crows - Anna Begins (from August and Everything After)

New Release: Murder Mystery - Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here it Comes

New York: Police are still 'mystified' concerning the circumstances surrounding the murder of a fan of NY band Murder Mystery at a recent show at a local bar.

Some eye-witnesses claimed that the fan, identified as Ian Fulashid, was having a scuffle with a group of men wearing t-shirts of another NY band The Strokes. Eye-witnesses also claimed that the scuffle was apparently about a disagreement the group of men had with Fulashid concerning 'bands who have ripped off The Strokes', "I heard one of the men shouting at him (Fulashid) and shoving him around, while screaming that Murder Mystery sounds more Kentucky than NY chic," says Olga Hammy, who also said that Fulashid appeared slightly drunk from the way he walked but couldn't quite confirm if it was intoxication or the band's music that was causing him to 'yank' around that way.

Another eye-witness also said that throughout the scuffle, Murder Mystery continued to just play their brand of tasty Velvet Underground-ish bumpkin rock tunes to a huge enthusiastic crowd - Reuter (or something like that)

1. Who Doesn't Wanna Give Me Love
2. In A Sentimental Mood
3. Love Astronaut
4. Think Of Me
5. Honey Come Home
6. Cold, Hard Workin' Man
7. Tell Me I'm Your Man
8. Baby, You Can Write Me A Letter
9. What My Baby Said
10. Huggin'
11. Sooner Or Later
12. It's All True

B-Side of the Week - Dirty Barry Stole the Bluebird

The Fratellis
Dirty Barry Stole The Bluebird (from the Chelsea Dagger single)
(Fallout Records)






POLICE REPORT

Polis Diraja Malaysia
Station: Bukit Aman Police Station
Reporting officer: Sgt Shahidan Bakar

Personal details
Name: Lu Ciak Sai
Age: 47
Sex: Male

Reporting: Stolen car

Car model: Nissan Bluebird
Year: 1985
Colour: Yellow

Owner's report

Morning morning I go to my car. Then I see my car gone wor. Just like dat. So I think, maybe I park not here. So I walk walk to find my car. But then, dun haf oso. So I walk to the other side, to the end there. But dun haf as well. I think think. Cannot be lah. I remember I park my car at the first place there. So I went back. But of course, my car not there. So I said "Blady shit, kanasai! Ch** c*b**, k*n l*n l** p** l** b** *h ch* c*b**!!!" And then the guard house fella can sommore come and say "dun shout here, got children". Wah, I so angry, I tell him "L*nc***, kamu mau gadoh ah?". So he walk away. And I kick the floor. And I kick the wall. And I kick all the car there. Kanasai. Night time parking car in front of my apartment, morning morning can get lost wan. What man? If i find the fella, I whack him kao kao man. Blady heck. K** s**!! K*n n* n* m* *h ch** c*b**!!!

The Fratellis - Dirty Barry Stole the Bluebird

New Release: White Shoes & The Couples Company - Skenario Masa Muda

The press kit states it. The melodies enforce it. The album cover screams it.

So it must be true: White Shoes & The Couples Company are not just Indonesia's indie pop ambassadors, they are apparently the beacons for the country's 1970s telemovie scene. It makes them all the more exotic, and thus its no surprise that tastemakers 16,000 kilometres away (yeah, I did the math) are buzzing. Buzzing as in, being picked up by Chocago-based Minty Fresh Records (who also host Liz Phair, The Cardigans, Veruca Salt, Bettie Serveert, Astrid Swan, manymanymore), talked about in Music For Robots and My Old Kentucky Blog, and swagged by Rolling Stone mag as being MySpace pacesetters and by Allmusic as crushworthy. And now, they've got a new mini-album out, with six tracks and a promise to sashay into the sunset with your lovestruck hienie.

It's all fully deserving. Except for one thing: the comparison is way wrong. In the 1970s, films from this part of the world were totally ahead of their time. I mean, Southeast Asian filmmakers had kungfu-savvy tapirs doing battle with three-legged spiders in bikini tops. They had motorbikes that could transform into coconut trees. They had coconut trees that could joget and swallow a whole keris at the same time. All that, against the backdrop of drum 'n bass throbs that would have easily piledrived all those tabla thwackers coming out of Bollywood.

So like, what they heck were the White Shoes chaps watching? Sheesh. Such deprived childhoods.

Track list:

1. Prelude
2. Super Reuni
3. Pelan Tapi Pasti
4. Roman Ketiga
5. Today is No Sunday
6. Aksi Kucing

Alas, I've got nothing from the new one. So here's something from their 2005 self-titled album, which is being re-released in the States. Good move, since it's a dainty treat, perfect for Isobel Campbell-era Belle and Sebastian aficionados. Still no traces of kungfu-savvy tapirs though.

White Shoes & The Couples Company - Nothing to Fear (from White Shoes & The Couples Company)

Fad of the Land: OurStage

Most online voting contests are shams, in the sense that the winners are usually the people with the most friends. But OurStage aims to take a step away from that, by creating an environment for visitors to reward the most deserving. In the spirit of Web 2.0, users upload their content—be it a song, an animation, a short, etc—onto the site, specifying the category it is to 'contest' in. Then, visitors judge between two random 'nominees' in any given category, and pick the one they feel is deserving to go to the next round. The eventual winners for each category at the end of the month win some cash, and the grand prize winner gets $5,000 and a shot at shoulder-rubbing John Legend or screening their short at some film fest.

All rather tasty. But screw democracy! Give me dictatorship. If I were in charge, the winner of the month would be the dude who writes the song with the most mentions about me. That dude would then get tips on how to drop grapes in my mouth from the optimum height, and how to pave my driveway with ivory in a way that kills the most elephants. So, because I'm such a big-hearted dictator, I'm giving all budding slaves a headstart by giving a sample of what is expected. Exclusively mined from my bottomless lyrical trove. Ready?

Pantsy, oh Pantsy
Only you do I fancy
Please call me Miss Pantsy
Though my real name is Nancy

The closing date is 30 September 2007.

Link: www.ourstage.com

John Legend - Show Me (from Once Again) [BUY]

Word for the Week: Ugly

Only because there is someone that's looking particularly hot around the office these days. More so than before? I would like to think so, yes. And no I am not being sarcastic but ...

... in the spirit of another workmate who has a 'no compliment' policy, as such I have deferred to paying her compliments in the contrary ("You look absolutely hideous today"), here's a post dedicated to quite possibly the ugliest witch of the east/west/space and Thundera.

Elliot Smith - Pretty (Ugly Before) (from From a Basement on the Hill)
The late king of depresso expressos puts on his Lennon hat and writes this laid back countrified number about err ... beauty before casually suggesting the contrary, like only he could.

Explosions in the Sky - An Ugly Fact of Life (from OST for Friday Night Lights)
This song's quite an anti-thesis of our 'word for the week'. Simmering atmospheric guitars and a giant slosh of melodramatic strings sends this to the furthest regions of grand. At the very least, pretty.

Redd Kross - Ugly Town (from Show World)
Muted power chords and three part in-your-face harmonies is Redd Kross' specialty, and they've not stinged on these essential ingredients here. Power pop at its most classic and well, powerful.

Vince Chong + Hannah Tan = one sold out blog

Our sources are saucy. Not the red gloopy kind that freaks add to eggs and toast. Nor the brown slush that penguin-suited chaps drip all over your spuds so that you have no reason to decapitate the chef for making you pay 50 bucks for bland yellow carbo.

No, our sources are saucy. And the sauciest of our sources has dished out a real dollop of tobasco this time. The declaration du jour? That reality show champ Vince Chong and peewee model Hannah Tan are an item.

Like, why that matters, I don't know. All I do know is that info like this gives me a perfectly innocent excuse to spruce up this page. Because frankly, indie icons are ugly dorks. And every so often, this blog could do with a dash of soul-selling.

Vince - Janji-Janji (from Janji Vince)
Hannah T - Fly On Your Wall (from Crossing Bridges)

P. Diddy steams up MySpace

NME reports that P. Diddy has waged war with American advertising execs. The suits have refused to air the ad for his new fragrance 'Unforgivable Woman' because it's a tad too steamy. Diddy has responded by posting an extended, thrice-the-action version of the commercial on his MySpace.

In Diddy's words, "Some people may be uncomfortable with the sensuality and sexual content, but it is important for them to make that decision personally."

Of course, the dude totally misses the point. Like hell, I've got zero problems with sexual content. Heck, I once wrote to Cartoon Network petitioning for them to write in some cuddle time for Ren and Stimpy. I even begged Disney Channel to shoot a special two-part miniseries called "High-yai-yai-yai-yai School Musical".

So Diddy, the issue really ain't the bump 'n grind. It's the fact that if your ad got aired, I would no longer have the freedom to avoid you simply by not changing to MTV; I'd now have to hear your tunes while I have my TV dinners. And that, my dear, is plain obscene.

Diddy, Nas and Cee-Lo - Everything I Love (from Press Play)

Portishead Live in Singapore: Mid 2008?

Yes, apparently sour times are coming to the land of Lions in 2008. If you're going 'Pot-a-loo-who?', we actually won't blame you (much), seeing as the Bristol band's last proper album was exactly 10 years ago.

10 bloody years. Granted it was a heck of an album, but lots of things can happen in 10 years no? I mean, just the other day they barred me for going into a preferred parking space because the card I was using was expired for a day. One damn day. And about a month ago, I tried to use a 1998 Toys 'R' Us discount card and the cashier laughed at me and said it's been expired for 9-years. That's still shorter than 10.

And what do Portishead get for being lazy for 10 years? This blog post and a show in, what is to them, an exotic destintaion.

Oh yeah, don't ask us how we got this scoop or we might be forced to put on some shades, wear a black suit and blow up some buildings. It won't be nice, seriously.

Portishead - Glory Box (from Roseland NYC Live)

B-Side of the Week - Go Girl Go

The Raveonettes
Go Girl Go (from the Attack of the Ghost Riders single)
(Scream Sync Prod)

There is a girl. And she's in no hurry.

She sits at the mirror and does her hair. Her peroxide blonde hair. She combs like a princess in a fairy story. Outside, motorcycles gather. Black leather and the roar of burning petrol. They will thunder into the night, riding like ghosts, going like light.

But she's slow. Way too slow. The motorcycles burn up another storm, howling through the black nocturne. Go girl go. They're waiting. The chain gang.

On the lam. From the law. The gangleader stubs out a cigerette and says...

"Oi! Ah moi! Mau jalan ke tak mau jalan? Lu buat apa moi?"

They ride out. She had everything but she still wanted more.

The Raveonettes - Go Girl Go

Lets' get lyrical, lyrical: Arcade Fire - In the Backseat

I like the peace
in the backseat,
I don't have to drive,
I don't have to speak,
I can watch the country side,
and I can fall asleep.

My family tree's
losing all its leaves,
crashing towards the driver's seat,
the lightning bolt made enough heat
to melt the street beneath your feet.

Alice died
in the night,
I've been learning to drive.
My whole life,
I've been learning.

I like the peace
in the backseat,
I don't have to drive,
I don't have to speak,
I can watch the country side

Alice died
in the night,
I've been learning to drive.
My whole life,
I've been learning ......

The sorrow on this album closer is like watching Jaws 3-D. No one does death well as these Montreal-ites, period.

Except maybe Death himself. Heard he has a wicked acid/house record on the way. It's absolutely lethal. Okay, okay, bad joke alert. Don't laugh too hard if not it might kill you. Kill, ha ha ha, get it? Okay fine I am going to stop now, serious. If not you can hang me. Ha ha ha, great huh? I could die laughing. Ha ha ha.

Arcade Fire - In the Backseat (from Funeral)

Air Guitar World Championships 2007

The New York Times reports on the 2007 Air Guitar World Championships, complete with some absolutely kickass pics. Apparently, many of the contestants aspire to do this full time; I wonder why, given that one of them dubs porn into Spanish and another spends his days bashing koalas.

Anyways, here are the winners, with their performances. My heroes.

WINNER: Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke (Japan)


SECOND PLACE: Guillaume "Moche Pitt" de Tonquédec (France)


THIRD PLACE AND AUDIENCE AWARD: Max "Herr Jaquelin" Heller (Austria)


M83 - A Guitar And A Heart (from Before The Dawn Heals Us)
Jamie T - Brand New Bass Guitar (from Panic Prevention)

New Babyshambles track for download

So a certified dipstick can bash up reporters, snort coke and go to jail—and yet when his band's new album is on the brink of release, he can partner with a leading British paper to offer a free download?

Someone shove heroin up my rectum.

To read more about the partnership between Babyshambles and The Times, click here.

Babyshambles - The Lost Art Of Murder (from Shotter's Nation)

The most rockin' song of all time (apparently)

The Onion AV Club must like pissing people off. They have declared Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Ramble Tamble' as the most rockin' song ever. They qualified that statement with five prerequisites, namely:

1. It came out between 1955 and 1980.
2. It has to be bluesy, but not too bluesy.
3. It can’t be a classic rock radio staple.
4. It must make you drive at least 10 mph faster within the first 60 seconds and/or make doing the dishes fun.
5. You know it when you hear it.
   

That's pissy. If a song were really rockin' it would have way steeper requirements. Namely:

1. It came out of your momma's ass.
   
2. It has to save the cheerleader.
3. It turns your radio into staples.
4. It has to make you do the dishes while you drive.
5. You've never heard it in its entirety, cos 10 seconds in, you dash over to your neighbour's backyard, steal his Labrador and make labby stew.
   

In which case, the most rockin' song has to be...

Ok fine, maybe the dude's got a point.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Ramble Tamble (from Cosmo's Factory)

Word for the Week: Alone

Because...

That is what you feel when there's no one around but it's not exactly lonely.

Being alone helps clear up plenty of clutter in your head. It's like a bottle of cheap cleaning solution that takes out the nasty stains deep in the recesses of you head. I have never thought clearer. Not even when I had to make that horrendously difficult decision to buy that absolutely brilliant Golden Smog album for S$2.00.

Earlimart - Happy Alone (from Mentor Tormentor)
Though you would never guess that being alone can be happy from this piano-thumping melancholic track. The kind of track that compels you to take long walks alone in the evening.

Explosions in the Sky - The Only Moment We Were Alone (from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place)
Grandious epic post-rock from the masters of the trade. At 8:31 into the track, you should feel the world deconstructing into a ball of absolute beauty and grace as swirling cacophonous guitars sound out the victory cry and you suddenly feel empowered to take on the world again.

The Enemy - You're Not Alone (from You'll Live and Die in These Towns)
Queens of the Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuven's big dumb rock project also yielded this Brit-heavy new wave pop nugget. 80s afros are encouraged. Top it up with a cat-suit, if you dare.

The Boo Radleys - Alone Again Or (from Learning to Walk)
Sice and company delivers a dirty and noisy cover of this Love track, straight out of their bandwagoning shoegaze days. Presumably before they discovered Lulu.

New Release: Eugene Francis Jnr - PoorMe/Kites Limited Edition 7" Single

With just two songs on display here, trying to make out what Eugene Francis Jnr is about is about as easy as figuring out what McDonalds is all about by just eating a crumb from the batter of a chicken nugget. Or like understanding what the Bible is all about by just reading any random two words from any book. Or studying reptilian life through Japanese Godzilla movies. Although the last would be so awesome, I may just dump this joint and go and become one of 'em smarty pants in a daggy white trenchcoat.

The two tracks are rather different. 'Poor Me' straddles a nice line between tasty Postal Service-like pop-tronics with a twangy swing while 'Kites' is like taking Conor Oberst on a holiday, having a beer and just smiling a little more. Quite nice son, quite nice.

So yes back to that idea about me being a scientist. You think it'll work? I mean I can count. Two chickens = one egg. Four people = The Beatles. 10 Jessica Albas around you = the superdest, bestest damn experience you are ever going to have.

World peace ... through hot chicks. Woo hoo.

1. Poor Me
2. Kites

Love Me Butch's new music video: Barricade

It's official. Love Me Butch can have my babies.

Love Me Butch - Barricade (from This Is The New Pop)

Luciano Pavarotti: 1935 - 2007

31st December 1999. Two boys were torn. Should they join the Deputy Prime Minister, some dangdut star and 150,000 people at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers? Or should they head over to the street party in another part of the city, where the Three Tenors were scheduled to croon before some 60,000 others?

They were torn. But one wasn't too thrilled about opera. And the other wasn't too decisive during those pensive teenage years. So the two boys boarded the train, and counted down the millennium in the presence of laser lights and spouting fountains. It was nice.

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That was the closest I got to Pavarotti. And these days, whenever I get some prissy gal waxing lyrical about how Russell Watson is 'The Voice', or how Josh Groban makes their mummy cry, I remember that evening in December, and think to myself: I wish I had gotten closer.

Zucchero, Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli - Miserere (from Zucchero & Co.)

B-Side of the Week - The Professor

Damien Rice
The Professor (from The Blower's Daughter single)
(Vector Recordings)

Ah... another sad man. Brokenhearted, lovelorn. Beat up to the bone, worn round the edges and torn through the middle. A broken heart, how romantic. Spewing poetry, guts and the absence of glory. Mistakes. Blame. Guilt. Hurt. Another man is in pain.

Because of a girl.

He'll curse. He'll cry. He'll bear his heart to radio djs and hmv shoppers. He'll have people film him pour his sorrow on the floor like sour wine. He'll sell out shows parading his circus of interpersonal cataclysm. They will wonder if it's fictional. They may never know.

But he knows.

As for me, I don't give a shit. Brokenhearted? Like hell I'm not brokenhearted. I've been in love every day for the last hundred years. I'm married to a 25-year-old girl who tells me I'm more man than He-Man and she's so stunningly beautiful, women leap off buildings in envy whenever she walks into a room. She walks around the house all day in sailor and school uniforms and our bed is made of reinforced titanium. So don't tell me about brokenhearted. My life doesn't suck like that.

Damien Rice - The Professor

Word for the Week: Mojo

Because...

Some of us lose it, some of us use it, and some of us wish Mr Powers didn't make us think it was worth having in the first place.

Josiah Venter - Mojo (from It's About Time)
Jason Mraz and John Mayer might have the hottie honies, but Venter's airy acoustic rock is strictly business, and playfully delicious.

Aaron Neville - Mojo Hannah (from Make Me Strong)
Soul gramp's euphoric rhapsody stuffs rubber teets in the genre's modern breed.

Mojo Nixon & The Toadliquors - Girlfriend In A Coma (The Smiths cover, from Whereabouts Unknown)
The original version was two minutes long; this one is twice the length, and has the 80s cock-abilly rocker calling Morrissey a fruitcake. Yowl.

Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Working (from The Essential Collection)
Plain in duty, blue in beauty.

Jeff Buckley - Mojo Pin (from Grace)
I've always wanted an excuse to post this song. Yay.

Megadeth Live in Singapore: Tickets go on sale today

You heard it right you metal nutcrackers, Mega-'I have a 20-year perm'-deth are coming to Singapore. So better dust off that old black Kreator tee and spike bands because you seriously don't want to miss this mind-exploding metal extravaganza. And yes, you have about two months to grow out of that loser-like accountants haircut and get down to some serious flea -infesting locks.

And yes, the rumor you've heard is true, Dave Mustaine's been getting down and holy with Christianity these days. But heck if a wholesome lifestyle ever affected the speed of thy devilish fingers *utterly evil snigger*. My only beef is why is the band still named Megadeth? Shouldn't it be Megalife or something? So that you know, go into health-care and (of course) hair products after they get a little too old to swing heads in front of 21-year old mascara-donning girls.

One thing's for sure, I know I am getting too old. Cause all I've been thinking about for the last 20-minutes between discovering that these living metal legends are coming and writing this post is how the heck does Mustaine keep that same perm for that long and not get slightly bored of it? Rust In Peace? Doesn't ring a bell. Marty Friedman? Ahhh, that guy that started that greasy-meat chain right? Nick Menza? Isn't he a pornstar?

Date: 26 Oct 2007
Time: 8pm
Venue: Fort Canning Park

Ticket Price (Excludes $2 Booking Fee):
S$85* for first 700 tickets
S$95* till October 25th
S$110* on October 26th

For more info and booking, go here.

Megadeth - Washington is Next! (from United Abominations)

The Klaxons win Mercury Prize

Good on y'all. May you use the £20,000 to install a stripper's pole on your tour bus, hire a new album cover designer and buy Amy Winehouse a Happy Meal.

The Klaxons - Two Receivers (from Myths Of The Near Future)

Fad of the land: Dylan and Garamond

Cool. just cool.

Link: www.ni9e.com/typo/typo_dylan.html

Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) [BUY]

Look what I found in the bargain bin

Sean Lennon
Into The Sun
(Capitol)

Price: RM10.00

Memories are cheap. Ten bucks for a few pieces on your lucky day. My lucky day was a Friday night, hunched over the discard pile with half a mind to gamble on the first thing that called out.

And out called Sean Lennon. I last held this cd in my hand as an 18-year-old, fascinated by the cover and seduced by both the idea of owning a new Lennon record and extending the arm of a Cibo Matto fixation. But I never bought the album. Undone by association, Sean’s record lacked the immediacy of the former and the eccentricism of the latter. But that was a long time ago. And that was 27 Aussie dollars.

But memories are indeed cheap, and I held in my hand for the second time this strange little forgotten disc. The cd inlay, with portraits sketched in colour pencil, reminded me of every artistic misadventure from a bygone youth. The lyrics – the godawful rhymes – recalled highschool poetry, written for girls who knew better. Sean, with his gawky threadbare vocal, could be any awkward boy.

There’s a lot to love here amid the fragile songsmithing, occasional bursts of distortion, right down to the odd nod to spacey electronica and bossa nova. I’ll be spinning this a lot from now on. Here's to a few inexpensive new memories.

Sean Lennon - Part One of the Cowboy Trilogy (from Into The Sun)