play that funky music

And before this blog turns too porleeteekerrrll…

Here are links to various bands in singapore.
I’m of course slightly biased,
as i am friends with a few of these band guys.

But listen for yourself.
Read for yourself.
Check out their gigs for yourself.
Listen for yourself.
And then judge for yourself if local music is that bad.
If only imported music from everywhere else is good.
If local = bad
If we are infact lacking musical talent in this country.

Sleeve

Camra

The Love Experiment

Phorous

Furniture (from KL)

Lunarin

Serenaide

ETC

KLPHQ (From KL)

Life Without Dreams

Leeson

Plainsunset

E.P.I.C

Ugly in the morning

Mistaken Identity

Embryo

Zero Sequence

And that only touches the tip of the iceberg as far as bands in singapore and malaysia are concerned. These are about all the links i can conveniently find when going through the friends part of each band’s myspace account. Other names off the cuff would be Tiramisu, A vacant affair, The Great Spy Experiment, The Super Illegals, The Oslo Castaways, IF, Electrico, The Observatory, The Pinholes, etc etc etc.

So, lack of music in Singapore?

Then why is it that you hardly hear any of this stuff on radio?

(well, lots of it is more experimental music. And until these various genres garner more mass appeal, i guess it will never make its way to mainstream radio. But most of these bands don’t set out with the aim of being heard on mainstream radio anyway.)

Well, enjoy all the free tracks in myspace.

So, after hearing all this, would you pay to attend a gig in singapore featuring some of these bands?

It’s also another sad point to note, that most musicians in singapore do it purely out of passion and a love for music, and not for any economic benefits or monetary gain. I don’t know of many who are playing gigs and hoping for that big break to make it big and instantly become rich. But most bands here put in hours and hours of rehearsals, put in many tiring hours of jamming and come out with original material, and then go through lots of effort to put out a good gig. But do our fellowcountrymen care? Do they appreciate all that effort and hard work?

And then…

all too often…

These bands end up playing to hardly any audience.

Coz everyone else in singapore is happily clubbing away, enjoying coverbands that are playing their favourite songs which they just heard on the radio a few hours ago (not that it is wrong to do so), and then saying that local music has no standard.
any wonder that our arts scene here is how it is?

do you hear what i hear

Before I get on to my main post,
just thought of posting a little reply to previous comments.
Thanks for the comments, and yes, i do read them. =)

Anon: Erm, yes, thanks, very funny.
Don’t know who you are, but i’m guessing u’re one of my friends,
trying to play yet another prank on me.
Can’t be bothered guessing who you are, but, hur hur hur.

Marcus: Hey dude! Haven’t talked to you or seen you in ages.
Hope to catch up with you soon!

Tania: Heyyy. Glad u’re still hanging in there!
Take care, and don’t worry… I’ll still be right here when u’re free.
Don’t drive yourself too nuts studying and all yea?

And on to the music stuff. =)

Was out with the dia guys, sal, and sansamp on saturday.
Went to check out this hidden audio playground at The Adelphi.
It’s a small shop tucked at one of the corners at the top level,
and looks just like some hardware repair shop.
The owner is a very very nice guy,
with a vast knowledge of audio stuff.
He also does harddisk recovery, and that was his initial business.
Awesome service, and it’s almost like a chillout place for audio enthusiasts.
You can test almost any pair of high-end earphones there.
The Shures (E2C, E3C etc.), The Westone UM1 and UM2, Ultimate Ears, Sennheisers, Beyer Dynamic, Etymotic…
shiok man.
Dream come true for anyone who’s into high-end headphones/earphones.
I got to test out 2 of the Grados (one of which really stands out for vocals-based stuff, and the other of which is more general purpose, and would suit rock stuff better.)

Got to finally test out the Westone UM1 and UM2.
Wow.
They would give my pair of B&O A8s a tough fight man.
The UM1 costs about $200+ less than the UM2, so it’s a good buy.
But I’m quite happy with my B&O A8s for now,
unless i have more moolah and get the iPod Nano. heh
Then i would seriously consider getting a pair of those UM1s.

But they seriously sound verrrrryyyy good.
The UM2s, spectacular.
Sound clarify, depth, presence, everything’s there.
Strong bass too.
U can feel the kick drum in your hear. literally. haha

I would highly recommend that place if you want to get a pair of really good headphones. And if your ears are fussier, it’s definitely a good idea to get a pair of solid earphones. So, for those iPod owners, who rip their songs at higher qualities…
Please do the music justice and invest in a pair of quality earphones.
It’s like buying a good car and putting on crappy rims and tyres.
That’s my analogy to getting a good MP3 player with good songs..
And using the the apple stock earphones. Heh

But some people, well, I don’t know what they are hearing.
There are seriously cases where people try out high end earphones,
such as the Shures or the B&Os or the Westones,
and then conclude that the iPod stock ones sounds as good.

Well, i guess it all boils down to one’s ear.
I, unfortunately, have pretty fussy ears.
And need to hear the nuances in the music that I listen to.
For my ears, i definitely hear a huuuugeee difference when I plug in the apple stock earphones and when i plug in the B&O A8s. It’s like a music revelation. =)

So, after all that talk, here’s the name of that shop.
You’ll probably step out of that shop learning 1 or 2 new things about headphones, sound and music. And the shop owner sure does enjoy his music too. CD which we used to compare the sound differences – Jeff Buckley’s Grace.
Now i so have to get that album.

The shop is called Jaben Network.
1 Coleman Street, #04-16
The Adelphi, Singapore
Tel: 6337-0809

Oh, and for you drummers out there,
he also carries the etymotic earplugs.
Highly recommended for the performing and jamming drummer.
I’ve been using them for a long time, and it is definitely a worthwhile investment to protect your hearing. These musician’s earplugs very effectively reduces the decibel levels entering your ear, while not trimming out any of the frequencies.
So basically all the noise levels are brought down evenly.
Excellent for jamming and drummers, so that you can hear everything clearly,
and all more softly at that.

Enough music talk for tonight.
Gotta sleep… Back to work in a few hours.

Mogwai!

Mogwai live in concert!

Mogwai!, originally uploaded by backbeats.

And one of the latest happenings.
Mogwai live in singapore!!

It was an awesome concert.
Will never see Glasgow Mega Snake in the same light again, as that song is just meant to be played live and loud!

Light show also saved the day for those who didn’t like the music as much thanks to them playing too many songs from Mr Beast.

Insane amounts of noise to close the show. ahhhh. shiok.

hippp city

Electrico’s new album is out.
Check out their new music video from the link right at the bottom of this post.

And as for other music things..

Dashboard Confessional’s new album is coming out, or might have already hit the stores.

I’m still wanting to get my hands on RHCP’s newest album which i heard rocks.

My band is currently still working on our debut EP. Laying down the guitar tracks to 2 of the new drum tracks that I laid a couple of months back. It’s going pretty ok. Slow, but steady i guess. haha
Hope that the EP will be ready by year end or early next year.
But i think documentary in amber is gearing up for a debut EP instead of a full-length debut album. We already have some material ready for our debut full-length album, so we’ll see how it goes i guess. A debut EP would give us a chance to gauge a response to our stuff. Hopefully with it, we could clinch an record deal. muahaahaha. Who knows? =)

I also wanna get the new Goo Goo dolls album. Edgier and heavier than their older stuff, nice, but a little low on cash, so shall have to put that purchase off till another time.

Do check out electrico’s website. Pretty well done.

That’s all for now. Band updates another time. =)