Shiny Sounds

completely pointless

2010-12-01T01:37:00.003+08:00

A year ago I went into a fit of paranoia and deleted all the linked music in this blog, something which I now regret. I also gave up on this blog in its entirety. I have a history of starting things and abandoning them. Dance. Piano. Guitar. Drawing. 3 blogs. God.

It's not even a pattern anymore, it's a line. Remember how in school's rudimentary art class, they told us that it's many many dots that form a line? Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, goes an EKG on a dead person. But I digress.

Over the course of the past week, I have had multiple people tell me to keep a blog, mostly for professional reasons. Apparently I need a portfolio of written work if I choose to *actually write* for money, see. And not written work with pairs of asterisks here and there denoting emphasis.

I need to start a blog of well articulated thoughts and opinions, objective, concise, and "with flair."

or I could just put up music videos.

i want to marry David Macklovitch, boleh?

2009-11-18T12:18:00.002+08:00

quality music. no... just Joseph Gordon Levitt

2009-11-18T10:30:00.001+08:00

La Bamba from Scott McGehee and David Siegel on Vimeo.

wow. can i like, work in hollywood?

neigh.

2009-11-15T17:11:00.003+08:00

Freelance Whales - Broken Horse

album here.

image from here.

it will, it will

2009-11-01T13:22:00.000+08:00

pretty darn awesome podcast

2009-10-21T20:35:00.004+08:00

Prince Billy & Tortoise – Thunder Road
My Morning Jacket – Off The Record
Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad Stimulated Remix
Ratatat - Nostrand
Slave feat. Steve Arrington – Weak At The Knees
Earth, Wind, & Fire – Keep Your Head To The Sky
Dick Dale – Nitro

[via nerditry.com]

Mixxx

2009-10-18T20:18:00.004+08:00

1. Islands - The XX
2. Feast of The Heart - Jesca Hoop
3. Rorschach - Karpatenhund
4. Sra do Monte -Noberto Lobo
5. Malherido - Juana Molina
6. In For The Kill - La Roux (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Mix)

[mediafire]

photo via Neil Krug [www.pulpartbook.com]

Em Pee Three dengan Dr Dzulkefly!

2009-09-09T14:53:00.003+08:00

Grateful Dead - Get Back (Live Beatles Cover)

Yuna - Dan Sebenarnya (Youtube, Live version)

covers #3

2009-09-06T02:58:00.003+08:00

Okkervil River - O, Dana (Big Star cover)

Beck - Heroin (Velvet Underground cover)

Devendra Barnhart - Don't Look Back In Anger (Oasis cover)

Drake - Let's Call It Off (Peter, Bjorn & John cover)

Harlem Shakes - Y Control (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover)

Your Twenties - Blue Jeans (Blur cover)

for those who were lazy to click..

2009-09-06T02:41:00.004+08:00

...the link in the former post. 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka, or 10 Years Before Independence, is necessary viewing for every Malaysian who's ever studied History at a national/national-type school. It's always about perspectives and interpretation with such a subject, and this documentary (Please don't let that scare you away. It's fascinating, I promise.) offers a version your form four(?) textbook cannot, to a soundtrack of punk rock no less.

now go, go, go.

Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka from fahmi reza on Vimeo.

you like what music, Mr Fahmi?

2009-09-04T02:08:00.005+08:00

Fahmi Reza --history buff and documentary filmmaker of such awesome use of celluloid (or miniDV) as 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka and Revolusi '48, likes punk rock. He likes punk rock so much that he very diligently put together a list of his Top 10 Favourite Punk Rock Subgenres for PopIN (a new information network catered to the Youth of Malaysia which in the spirit of full disclosure I will happily admit to being part of.)

Part of the hilarity of the post comes from his spoofing of a very integral part of PopIN's new show "MP3" --one part Malaysian Member of Parliament and three parts music. You'll see :)

link to the Punk Rawwk post here.

put. those. headphones. on.

2009-07-27T02:01:00.000+08:00

typefaces give us signals

2009-07-17T23:09:00.000+08:00

Typefaces give us signals from erik spiekermann on Vimeo.

this is supposed to be viral so i'm just doing my job. it has absolutely nothing to do with my favourite hollywoodlanders in bad wigs. ah huh.

2009-07-16T01:20:00.005+08:00

a gorgeously sublime album cover doesn't hurt

2009-07-14T19:11:00.006+08:00

About 5 hours ago I was sitting here on my favorite Ikea chair, at my favorite spot facing the pastel mint accent wall in the living room, with menstrual cramps attempting --to put it lightly, to kill me. The only thing that came close to making everything lean towards better was green tea. Stuff was not organic and I doubt even decaf, having been picked out at the hypermart by the ol' maternal one, but what it was, was effective.

........

Now I should let you know that the above paragraph has no actual point, with no connection to either the title or illustration in this post. With the amount of people (lack of etc.) that come here I feel no responsibility to produce sensible posts, and would rather serve the few who do with whatever I feel like, and feel. However the link I have included does go with aforementioned title and picture. Megafaun, folk experimentalists and collaborator with such personally loved musicians as Akron/Family and The Rosebuds will be releasing their debut in a week. It should be excellent. Take a listen to The Fade.

The Fade
Megafaun

[HOMETAPES]

"We have an all-inclusive, listener-sensitive, tradition-hungry, innovative and genuine practice of improvisation. The stylistic spaces we inhabit during these improvisations can span influences from dissonant 50s electronic music, musique concrete, and free jazz; to a melodic consonance associated with traditional American folk and popular song forms, as well as some traditional influences from other parts of the world (African, Cuban, South American Rhythms). Really, we feel all these musical styles (academicly-based or not), when incorporated in the improvisational life of this band, become part of our own folk tradition." - Joe Westerlund of Megafaun

i did not write this review. i do however love it so.

2009-07-13T22:49:00.008+08:00

Poor Charlie Fink. His south London band, formed with his brother and some mates, features two girls on vocals. Both leave to do their own thing: Emmy The Great to make music with her own band, Laura Marling to become a Mercury-listed singer-songwriter and one of the hits of 2008. But part of Marling’s success is down to Charlie - he produced Alas, I Cannot Swim. He was also her boyfriend. Double-pleased.

Then Laura chucked him.

So Charlie Fink goes away. As his heart plummets his imagination soars. Soon his reflections on love and loss will find form in an album and accompanying film. Both will be called The First Days Of Spring. One song, a folk-blues lament with tear-dripping brass, is called My Broken Heart (”I saw my world cave in”). Another, I Have Nothing, begins with a choir humming and rain falling. The film is unveiled at the Latitude festival next weekend. It will, I suspect, be wonderful.

This is a beautiful album. Moving rather than maudlin, uplifting rather than depressing. Instrumental #1, all strings and brass and piano, is like the overture to a David Lean epic, not least because it leads straight into the mighty, hot-stepping, choir-driven Love Of An Orchestra.

“This is the love song that I write while still in love with you,” Fink sings over booming drums, and more choral backing vocals oh the standout Blue Skies. Next to the irresistible-yet-twee-ish indie-pop of last year’s Top 10 summer hit 5 Years, he’s upped his game quicksmart.

Impressionistic symphonic-pop maestro Sufjan Stevens, back this autumn with a new album, had better watch his back. Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, cooking up his own long-gestating, musical-film project, has been served notice. Here is a song-painter blessed with huge talent. Rich Charlie Fink. guardian

my tiny heartaches could be more cryptic

2009-07-13T16:55:00.001+08:00

:)

2009-07-05T17:46:00.001+08:00

YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF A CAVE from grammar school on Vimeo.

a quick post

2009-07-05T16:10:00.004+08:00

One of my favourite things is stumbling upon ingenious little new media ideas, some of which may seem bloody obvious to begin with. Case in point musical collaboration through the interwebs. Wired came up with a list of 10 sites that musicmakers and mixologists, the diy, lo-fi kind especially, would do well to pay a visit to. They range from a site that allows musicians to share unfinished musical bits and bobs, to one they can go to to scour for that tailor made accompaniment from someone halfway across the globe, to a not-so-plain virtual jamspace. I say bedroom musicians have no excuse not to get cracking on their projects now.

apocalyptica

2009-06-24T23:25:00.008+08:00

Sunset - Zombies

Sprites - George Romero
*an absolute must have*

in response to a last.fm thread that irked

2009-06-06T06:29:00.003+08:00

So I was supposed to be studying, but decided to check my Last.fm page on impulse, which led to further clicking around the site. I soon found myself on a rather whiny thread in the "Malaysians" group, so I left a rare reply, in hopes that the message gets to some countrymen-and-women. I shall reproduce it here.

You want change in the scene, you want quality, you create the music

That's all there is to it. I don't understand the barrage of Whine that keeps cropping up on these threads. Why should we have a Malaysian group if all we do is complain about how bad local music is? Criticism is all fine and dandy but how about giving that a break and sharing good acts we find for once? I personally dig the Deserters, Furniture, Azmyl Yunor, Reza Salleh, and Paolo Delfino among others. I also find Hujan to be a reallytight band to watch live. Derivative? Certainly. But then again so are most bands, and artists. Art is a chain of influence. It takes a serious maverick to break out doing something Nobody Has Done Before, which begs the question, is it that important anyways?

And why should we limit ourselves to genres? (i.e. suggestion of trip hop) The reason Icelandic music is so innovative is a precise result of the musicians not restricting themselves to any particular soundscape. From what I understand, the musicians take in what their environment offers (i.e. the otherworldy beauty of their natural surroundings) and create music inspired by it, which explains why it sounds the way it sounds.

Guys, I'm not saying that our music scene is excellent as it is, there's so much room for growth in the quality and creativity in the work of our local artists. But we have to understand that it takes time, and that we as consumers of music should be actively supportive, aside from being critical. Go for gigs, buy merch, review, promote, make your own quality music, and be true to your experiences and ideas while at it; Thats the only kind of authenticity one can hope to achieve.

indie typefaces

2009-06-05T17:45:00.017+08:00

Apart from the movie, I loved the scrawled up, xeroxed art direction of Juno's opening credits and promotinal materials as much as your next flukey hipster girl. Then came Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and aside from the now readily gathered fanbase of indie scene kids and the film's music-centricness, something else seemed familiar. I brushed that aside and moved on with my life.

On my recent new movie trawl I came across *this* website for the new one by Focus Features, Away We Go. And again pops a cleaner, blockier variation of that all too familiar pencilled, 3D, slab serif typeface. What is it with indie film promo art designers? I mean, I love these fonts and employ them on a regular basis in my own amateur work, but lend some dimension and creativity to Indie, please. The pseudo-genre is already dead as it is.

Back to the art. The use of the color orange and the hand drawn graphics are definitely reminiscent of Juno, which leads me to wonder if the designers alluded to that on purpose, juxtaposing the naiveté Diablo's characters so understatedly displayed with the theme of this movie, that of finding yourself thirty-something years not-so-young, pregnant with child, and on an urgent search for a literal, --and certainly more than literal semblance of home. I'll say, it's pretty darn neat, if not the most subtle.

To refresh ya'lls memory:

the opening credits for Juno

promotional poster for Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

...and now, here's the minisite for Away We Go.

Question of the Day: Doesn't the title sound terribly meh for something with J. Krasinski in it?

the future!

2009-06-05T17:15:00.002+08:00

creepy uber-guylined album cover aside

2009-06-04T05:03:00.006+08:00

...West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum is really proving itself to be a slaying collection of songs.
Those who like their electronic dance rock straight up might veer away from this one (at least initially), what with psych-tendencies being peppered all across the band's trademark dance anthems. But this added dimension only expands on the sound that made them so huge in the first place. Gypsy violin. Wild-west-meets-Far-East flourishes. This is Kasabian, all grown up, and it's quality.

Lead singles Fire and Vlad The Impaler, in the aforementioned style that made Club Foot so goshdarn sexy, are slamming electro jams that fans have come to expect, yet the album takes this sound to other places, --and times, for that matter. One would not expect 60s pop noir to be immediately associated with a band touted to be the "Oasis of Gen-Y" (zomg), but they achieve this anyways, on Secret Alphabets. Swarfiga, in all its psychedelic-jazzy instrumental glory, as one reviewer notes, "borders on krautrockish". And West Rider Silver Bullet finds Hollywood actress Rosario Dawson in a spoken word intro a la Tilda Swinton, but she does one... half?.. better, providing background vocals as well. How's that for variety from the next guard of British ladrock ey? Kings of Leon, watch and learn.

Kasabian - Fast Fuse
Kasabian - Secret Alphabets

Here's a couple of early favourites. Checkit.
And don't forget to boogie a little.

late last week in music and rhythmic movement

2009-05-31T07:51:00.014+08:00

Oh emm gee. Is this not the sickest, 100% Nylon approved, lineup ever?
Los Angeles I'm Yours indeed.

Last week --thanks to a *pretty awesome* friend, I had the opportunity to attend both the Ratatat show and Dim Mak party (or if you must, U.O.X. Play Future), both of which kicked substantial musical butt. On Thursday, the New York duo recreated their stylish, distorted sounds at Zouk to amazing effect, accompanied by visuals portraying, among other things: the Governator, swirling images of a bird, flames devouring a carpet with Hindu-Buddhist motifs, and a leaping boy.

The Dim Mak thing was rad as rad could possibly be, towards the end at least. We arrived in time for Strech Armstrong's set to head bop --and occasionally get dowwwn through his, Pase Rock, and LapSap + Shitdisco's before the man/restaurant-heir known as Steve Aoki appeared in all his epic hipsterness to spin (press play?) on his laptop to compel us to, well, party like its 1999, joining him in the worship of hisself

N.A.S.A. - Gifted (Steve Aoki remix)

"Ya'll motherfuckers know who this is"

zan and dvd seller

2009-05-23T00:57:00.008+08:00

I found this clip on the Malaysian Insider and despite the fact that it features my lecturer --thus making it automatically uncool, it's actually quite... cute. Yes, I assure you that's the word. It also *kind of* reinforces Bangsa Malaysia, a message watching Gadoh twice in five hours has drilled into my cranium veritably.

covers #2

2009-05-20T22:32:00.004+08:00

Little Boots - Rich Boys
originally by The Virgins

Josh Reichmann Oracle Band - Daniel
originally by Bat For Lashes

Zee Avi - First Of The Gang To Die
originally by Morrissey

Winter Gloves - Smells Like Teen Spirit
le duh

St. Vincent & The National - Sleep All Summer
originally by Crooked Fingers

let's just watch this over, and over, and over

2009-05-20T04:33:00.004+08:00

it's not just malayzhun pryde

2009-05-20T02:53:00.010+08:00

I pimped Miri born Kay Ell bred songstress Kokokaina's music in a piece for my matriculation newsletter early last year, and have been hooked on her velvety, throwbacky sound even longer. So imagine my elation when I found out that her self-titled debut (as Zee Avi) just dropped on Brushfire Records a.k.a. Jack Johnson's label. Good ol' Google led me to a review on Rolling Stone, pimpage on Spinner --with a really pretty Interpol cover, no less, and a healthy, diverse handful of blog love. You go girl, you, and your marketing team.

further ruminations: I am greatly amused by how folks sell Malaysiana or exoticism to Americans. Comparing her music to "the untouched tropical paradise of Borneo" where she was BORN, and not the litter strewn lorongs of Kay Ell where she's probably more familiar with, in particular, reeks of Fail. This has nothing to do with music however. Just the aspiring music marketer in me striving for some form of integrity in-context.

a completely non-music related post to remind you that this is not a music blog

2009-05-17T03:29:00.013+08:00

"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

V and I throw this line from a Mark Twain speech back and forth quite a bit, being the lazy pair of readers-of-classics we occasionally let ourselves become. And it doesn't make our lack of enthusiasm for the World's Best Books any more excusable, but we're certainly not the only ones, as the existence of my latest discovery attests. This discovery being DailyLit.com, a site offering salvation for the once obsessed, once alive Lit reader in all of us. Promising "Minutes a day of great reading in your inbox," the idea is simple, if not fairly clear by now. You type in your e-mail, pick the frequency of when you'd like a few pages of one of the World's Best Books sent to you, and the exact time you want it delivered (so you can squeeze more out of your lunchtime) et voila, a realistic system for me to conquer War and Peace, and for you, whichever heavy duty book about Russia of your liking.

On a vaguely related note, the aptly titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, was released March this year and has since gone to become a New York Times bestseller. Now if you knew me at all you would be aware of the fact that I dig dig dig the Austen original -and anything concerning fictional undead- to utter bits. I'd like to continue pointing out the obvious and say I'm hunting for a physical copy so if you see it around, let me know. Also, I know for a fact that some of the three(?) readers I have might be interested in this sort of thing. You guys might want to check out the three-chapter sampler/teaser here.

"that's such a great look on you"

create, why won't you?

2009-05-11T03:17:00.006+08:00

This genius, Joel P West, started a project where in exchange for a link to download his album Dust Jacket, you, the music consumer would have to submit a piece of expression of your own creation in the form of anything uploadable: a song, some prose, a picture, even a word, and share it with the world. So the value of his music is the creation of many other pieces of art, with the only criteria stipulated being that it should be honest or candid. Despite being highly novel and I would assume, a economically unsustainable form of exchange, this trade is a legitimately awesome idea and accurately reflects the true value of music -and all other art for that matter- in the journey of its creation as well as the ideas that spark it.

I'm working on a little paragraph that I will submit and I hope you do something too.

for su ling.

2009-05-08T13:39:00.007+08:00

Some are live recordings, some are proper music videos.
All are relatively [Feb, March, April-ish] new apart from the last one.

Dan Auerbach
"Trouble Weighs A Ton"
off Keep It Hid

Passion Pit
"Sleepyhead"
off Chunk Of Change

[by the way, the above? Killer band. Check out their other songs from the same performance on Spinner here & here.]

Frightened Rabbit
"Head Rolls Off"
off the WOXY.com sessions

Phoenix
"Lisztomania"
off Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Metric
"Gimme Sympathy"
off Fantasies

Burn The Negative
"You Control Me"
off In The Atmosphere

james iha, bun e, adam schlesinger

2009-05-06T02:12:00.010+08:00

...and Taylor Hanson. Yeah baby.
If you're *slightly* older than 13 years old and still listen to the Jonas Brothers, feast your ears on this instead. Better quality, catchier, and um.. JAMES IHA!

Tinted Windows
"Rock After Dark Promo"

Tinted Windows - Kind Of A Girl

Tinted Windows - Messing With My Head
(This is stuck in my cranium. I'll never be cool enough to have some experimental proggy instrumental by some Canadian musical collective to be on loop in there instead dammit.)

ciplak wayfarers

2009-05-04T18:23:00.003+08:00

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
"Take Off Your Sunglasses"
off Inside The Human Body

alles liebe zum muttertag

2009-04-27T22:57:00.011+08:00

Rahzel - If Your Mother Only Knew

The Show Is The Rainbow - Mother and Son

John & Jehn - Make Your Mum Be Proud
That IS how it goes.

New Radicals - Mother We Just Can't Get Enough

Moby - Love Song for My Mom

The Morning Benders - Mother & Child Reunion

edit: thanks for the reminder, V, of that last song =)

her nose ring is cooler than mine

2009-04-27T20:09:00.004+08:00

This is where I obsess over a not-so-new singer like the fangirl that I can be.
Introducing Jessica Lea Mayfield.
More songs available for sampling on the right>>
Aaaaand enjoy.

Jessica Lea Mayfield Performance from More Dust Than Digital on Vimeo.

covers #1

2009-04-27T17:54:00.010+08:00

Stars - This Charming Man

Bat For Lashes - Use Somebody

The Go Team - Bull In The Heather

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Another Satellite
[do yourself a favor and download this]

profound stupidity and sleep deprivation

2009-04-23T06:21:00.009+08:00

This is the second time in a week I haven't had a bed to rest in at night, simply because other people are fast asleep in it. And two separate house mates didn't think of leaving their door unlocked for me when there's a spare bed there. This is bad, the generosity and foolishness. Let's just run with the pattern then..

The Decemberists - Sleepless

The Heavy Blinkers - The Night And I

Fontän - Early Morning

Jonna Lee - Dried Out Eyes

just go, okay?

2009-04-23T03:40:00.003+08:00

Urbanscapes is back.
Film. Theater. Music. Art. Non-crappy bazaar. All day.
You will want to be there.*
Only rm35.
Here's hoping this pimpage will score me a free pass.
Paging the intern ;)

*if it's at least half as insanely awesome as last years'

i’m not gonna cry no tears

2009-04-22T20:02:00.000+08:00

I've missed two, two Jens Lekman shows in KL.
Still breaks my heart that I let that happen.

The Sweptaways and Jens Lekman

"Happiness Will Be My Revenge"

Off The Sweptaways Show, only available in Scandinavia unfortunately.

summing up my day so far

2009-04-22T17:37:00.001+08:00

IAMX - You Can Be Happy

The Wrens - Dance The Midwest

Replicants - Just What I Needed

Nellie McKay - Food

for my friend the nerd.

2009-04-21T12:29:00.001+08:00

Elliott Smith - Angel In The Snow

Marah - Angels of Destruction

Death Cab For Cutie - Earth Angel

Jack Johnson - Angel

The White Stripes - Lord, Send Me An Angel

for bloody awful poetry.

2009-04-21T11:25:00.001+08:00

a song.

My Brightest Diamond - Feeling Good

Yes, that Feeling Good.

for b. rach.

2009-04-21T06:08:00.002+08:00

Back when there weren't intense artsy types to fawn over. lol.

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - 1999

The Postmarks - You Only Live Twice

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children

Belles Will Ring - Older Younger

on fragility and its allure

2009-04-20T22:16:00.000+08:00

Mick Flannery and Lisa Hannigan
"Christmas Past"
Dec 8th 2008
Other Voices: Songs From A Room
St James' Church, Dingle, Co Kerry, Ireland