|
|
|
May 2nd, 2008
05:52 pm - Etc go POW - 2nd May - possibly already done the time you read this
Fresh off the press: Etc was enjoying prolonging their winter hibernation until a few minutes ago. Then a call came in that woke them up to the heat and dust of the day: a request that Etc plays tonight – Friday 2nd May 2008 – at Prince of Wales.
In keeping with Etc tradition, Etc automatically offered another act instead - in this case, Deserters. But when contacted, Zack –fresh into Singapore for this weekend’s giggery– was at the bar and claimed to be already too sozzled to play. So, in keeping with the Etc tradition of being rough and ready, Etc said: yes.
Hats off to new recruit Harvey (drums), who continues to pass Etc’s bootcamp tests with flying colours. He didn’t hesitate when asked about the gig – and had already begun to pack his drum-kit to bring to the venue as we spoke.
We’re due on at 9.30pm. That's less than three hours. Better get my stuff. Prince of Wales is in Singapore. It’s located at 101 Dunlop Street, Little India. Click round here for directions to P.O.W.
This could be a recipe for disaster.
|
April 29th, 2008
10:31 am
|
April 21st, 2008
07:03 pm - Blame it on the Weather?
Not sure if I can blame it all on Singapore's current temperature or the new level of horrific stuffiness where I work, but my brain might be melting. I just looked up the medical definition of lethargy and see it's a pathological state, so I hope that's not it. I *do* feel tired, but I think I got enough sleep. Feels like a hangover, but it can't be since there's not been any alcohol. Perhaps I'm still recovering from recent Etc session (new recruit said: "invigourating"). Or I am just listing my state as an excuse to post a clip of a cat playing a theremin? It's not like I need an excuse since I like cats and I like theremins. Happy Monday. Get well soon.
|
April 18th, 2008
06:25 pm - You need this Doctor in the House
My eagerness to share the 1959 Doctor Ross record called 'Cat's Squirrel' has yet to diminish, but I've yet to find a suitable (easy-way-round-it) Youtube clip. In the meantime, one positive comment from the Savile row was all I needed to post this piece of acoustic techo-house music / mototik punk / whatever you want it to be:
|
April 16th, 2008
07:29 pm - Is Extinction the Future?
Here's a song called "Extinction" by band from San Diego:
Please comment.
|
April 14th, 2008
09:25 am - Brand NEU! Order
Continuing the K. Dinger (1946-2008) appreciation soc humdinger, various NEU! music clips und NEU! things have been posted in the comments of this previous Tajmall journal entry.
Since I haven't done so myself, I can't actually recommend watching any of these clips, it's just that youtube provides a means of hearing the music - esp. Dinger's drums. Perhaps I merely have little patience for visuals w/ pre-recorded music, but there's also the possibility that I dread to think of the clothing and facial-hair possibilities explored by experimental rockers from mid-70s Germany.
What's not been on tajmall yet (I think) is the clip of "Hero" below. One could jest that was their attempt at more accessible music given that it has vocals and more notes and conventional song structure tricks than NEU! usually employed. It also appears to have performed on telly. Delightful graphics have been added to provide opening and closing credits. What *IS* that font? Enjoy.
|
April 9th, 2008
08:10 pm
Klaus Dinger - *24.03.1946 - †21.03.2008
Viva viva NEU! man, Klaus Dinger
And wow now
to find out that he
the Motorik drummer
was also the singer!
I only just found out (via an online posting by Franz Ferdinand's guitarist) that the drummer of the amazing German duo called NEU! is dead. Naive me thought they might stop the clocks on this one. You mean it wasn't on the news? Not matter he was in the original line-up of Kraftwerk, Dinger was the architect of the Motorikbeat and therefore someone to whom so much is owed much by -to name a few- Bowie, Thom Yorke, Orbital, Sonic Youth, PiL, The Fall, Wilco and probably/inevitably, Julian Cope. Who knows how far his beat goes? Oh, *I* do. It goes: Für immer
Für immer: a) a NEU! songtitle; b) German for: "forever"
And now, not only do I hear Dinger's gone, but I discover that HE was also NEU!'s unique vocalist. It wasn't the other guy. Obviously I never checked the text on the sleeves of my prized NEU! CDs. The music was enough... So that means there's an even stronger connection between him and the Sex Pistols on that strange thread that still unfurls down city high streets, fashion catwalks and in the haircuts of millionaire sportsmen.
It's no coincidence I haven't listened to any of my Stereolab records since I heard NEU! They just seem cheat money in comparison. And NEU! are amazing in the way that they manage to make their sort-of-contemporaries sound florid - even CAN when they're at their most minimal don't quite match up with such spookily *pure* music.
I think NEU! must be the band I waited longest to hear, as in: I knew the name but didn't get to hear them for the longest period. It was all the more of a thrill when I did hear them and I was not disappointed. In fact, they managed to exceed expectations. These were records I suspected must exist somewhere - and at last I was hearing them. And to make it bittersweet: it was the last record played on the last ever Peel show broadcast on the World Service. Forgive me while I get misty-eyed about this... like I might have been as I tuned in on a fading Walkman at that Queensway bus-stop, on route to a new job at the moment when I first heard NEU! on Peel for what I also knew was to be the last time.
|
April 2nd, 2008
01:13 pm - Life Without Cat, People
The latest strip from Garfield Minus Garfield:
Like it says: "when you remove Garfield... the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life..."
|
March 26th, 2008
03:41 pm - You thought I was making it up about the Emo Wars? Me too
The appearance of Hare Krishnas at 1:55 into the bulletin below made me think this could well be an April Fools prank. But then I remembered the strong Emo-Krishna connection and affiliations (via Shelter et al.) from back in the day. "Oh my God - they're the reinforcements..."
Next came an S.O.S. from my tearful Mexican half-cousin, Ruben, trying to get in touch with the Grunge gangs. And now I see that the LA Weekly is on the case - the City of Angels bracing itself for an influx of refugees?
As they say at rocksellout.com, you couldn’t make this stuff up "even if you tried".
See also: The Daily Swarm MEXICO'S EMO WITCH HUNT: MOB ATTACKS IN MEXICO CITY AND GUADALAJARA... TELEVISA VJ'S RANTS INSPIRE VIOLENCE... EMO KIDS FIGHT BACK ACROSS THE COUNTRY... And don't forget Hollywood depictions of future dystopia. See those street gangs that snarl from the subways? They could be Emo kids who were pushed too far.
|
03:28 pm - "Emo" sounds so much better in Spanish
No wonder lots of bands and DJs and bengs and junior mat rokkers have decided they now want to be tagged as "Indie". It's because they don't want to be caught up in the real Emo War now breaking out in some countries - with some help from people like this gentleman below...
|
March 19th, 2008
08:19 pm - Arbeit Macht Fried
The colleague referred to as David Brent jr. adds insult to injury.
Injury: having it so I am now unable to play Etc / Deserters / Ferns / Couple show in K.L. on Saturday. Instead, I have to stay in Singapore for the long weekend and report to the office after dinner on Easter Saturday.
Insult: playing a recording of a twiddly "Metal" guitar version of Pachelbel's Canon in D on repeat almost all day. When it wasn't that I think it was something by Shakatak. He kindly emailed the Canon around the office too. Subject: "Great Song!"
I will ask if he can teach me how to play it since he's been telling me tales of his old bands who I seem to have missed out on. Strangely he can never remember the names of them despite their reportedly decent profiles.
Also today: another colleague almost let everyone in the office know that I play in a band. Managed to distract them away from him by getting blood from a stone elsewhere.
I recommend this show if you're in KL this Saturday. What a feast of friends.
|
March 13th, 2008
01:41 pm - Auden't know much about poetry - but I know what I like
I feel fortunate that the day I remembered to have a look at the Guardian's website was the day they began a series "Introducing seven of the greatest poets of the 20th century". It started with Eliot (don't worry girls, today is Plath day), and I got the feeling I could even warm to the old bugger as I read my print-outs (including Craig Raine's foreword) on a rainy night at the near-empty Bkt Merah Lane stalls, sat with cat, Carlsberg and a decent mee goreng. Such optimism.
Yesterday's Auden print-outs haven't been attended to yet (and I've been told by the boss to write off any plans for tonight - including Ferns' gig at the Esplanade Concourse, 6.30pm), but hoorah for the interweb that I can cut and paste something I really like here:
Musée des Beaux Arts
WH Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
© the Estate of WH Auden. Curtis Brown Ltd and the Estate of WH Auden from Collected Poems published by Faber and Faber. More at http://books.guardian.co.uk/greatpoets/. If you get any, hold on to the booklets of poetry they're giving away with the paper. And if you don't want them I'll look after them for you.
|
February 28th, 2008
02:40 pm - Nice Weekend
Why wait for the Mosaic festival when you've got this? Akta Angkasa (roughly translates as threading "space") were epileptic-fit-inducing (in a good way) when Etc played w/ them in Malaysia. They're on Sat. And isn't it about time you saw Force Vomit play a gig in the year 2008? They're going to on Sunday.
|
February 22nd, 2008
06:38 pm - They keep me late in an Industrial Estate
About time I thank folk for their concern for me regarding the current day-job, and whether I've still got one. This would be after my post from over a month ago: "...saw an appointment ad for the very position I hold, suggesting they're looking for a bilingual replacement." Of course, when it comes to the biopic or autobiography this scene will see me having to compose the text for the very ad that could be my undoing.
As for now, the deal is: I am still here and being kept busy enough thank you very much. How secure my position is - I can't tell. Another copywriter has yet to appear, but even if they do: it *might* not jeopardise my place here. This is because there seems to be a silent war being waged between two of my superiors - something that I was oblivious to when one of them started handing me work to do. Since then the other -the woman who interviewed and hired me- seems to have stopped giving me work to do. This could be be mere coincidence, but it does seem odd. And the way that my other colleagues get evasive and seem petrified when I dare ask what's going on does suggest that something is up. So it's perhaps not too far-fetched to suggest that I've accidentally become someone else's employee while staying in the same company. And that neither of them wants to share me.
I'm not sure what surprises me anymore. But that's a whole other story.
Hope you had a lovely Lunar New Year period. Were you one of those stage-divers at the Noise Pop gig? I like you. That's the probably the best crowd I've played to. Certainly the most lively.
And has anyone seen Gwyneth Paltrow in Singapore in the last few days? Or do you happen to know for sure where she was - which country - last Sunday? I'm curious to know.
Current Music: Walter Wegmüller "Der Narr" (Tarot)
|
February 6th, 2008
01:23 pm - I Start my Rat: Sat in KL
If you're in KL over the holidays here's a concert poster (w/ typo) for a concert you can see there.
|
12:56 pm - Papa's Got a Brand New Rat Bag
Since people have been known to take me literally, perhaps I should point out that I don't *really* plan to play footie by myself on the Ayer Raja Expressway. The Pan-Island perhaps.
What the dawning of the new Lunar Year currently means to me is a whole lot of trouble getting back from playing w/ Deserters this Saturday in K.L. Not for lack of trying (since early Jan), I've been unable to find tickets to Singapore for Saturday night, Sunday or even Monday. So if you see me around, give me a ride. Oh and call my work and tell them I am stranded up north.
Also, the Year of the Rat might mean it's time to change my LiveJournal user icon - an image taken from the Emile de Antonio documentary:
I could change it to this:
Or something from wence I first came across the image, since I still share the sentiment of the amended version of what it says on the helmet:
Happy New Year.
|
12:18 pm
The eve of the Lunar New Year is upon us - something that often bodes a switch-flick that transforms parts of Singapore into a ghost-town. This is when I usually wear some old jeans from Oxfam that are too long in the leg for me - the pair that's been worn in several states of upturn by various tinkers and tykes since 1969. And never once washed.
And in these togs at this time of year I have desultory kick-arounds with an exhausted, misshapen leather football on the vast tarmac of any given local motorway, all by myself -sometimes with a crippled dog watching- before a team of bearded and flare-wearing TV documentary makers from the 70s appears to film me while they imagine their Oxbridge-sociology-tainted voiceover to accompany this footage. Except they always change my name to Billy once they come to recording it. Maybe it's a reference to Billy Casper (not the golfer, but the kid from "Kes"). Not that I mind.
|
February 1st, 2008
06:45 pm - simon cowell is no Monk
how nice to know the Monks were once considered telly-friendly. Kevin, seen this?
|
January 31st, 2008
07:40 pm - S-Rock's ones to watch in 2008
Etc is honored get a mention in the S-ROCK blog round-up of Singapore-based bands for 2008. The alphabetical list puts Etc between B-Quartet ("technically, the best band in Singapore now... modern progressive rock at its finest") and Firebrands ("a 'happening' modern hard rock band").
And it says:
Etc - "Good old Ben Harrison has been reduced to a solo act but you know, with the kind of articulated, witty songs that Ben parlays, you never notice that too much. Don't put too much stock in that 'cerebral' moniker, Ben is a rocker and I'm hoping to see him cut loose in 2008!"
Not sure where the writer, Kevin Mathews, gets his Etc line-up information from, but we've also heard some good stories about the state of the Etc nation, so no surprises there. What we especially like: Kevin's last sentence. It's true. No-one loves a smart-arse. And Etc does love their rock and roll. So thanks for pointing it out.
This was originally posted on the Etc myspace. Then lost track of where it went on Facebook (Can you tell me the difference between posting on one's own "Wall" and "posting a link"; a Facebook "Group" page and a Facebook "Fan" page; and what are Facebook "Notes"?). Next stop: a real Blogspot blog. Then Geocities. Followed by an early-90s bulletin board. And then I'll tie those little rolls of paper to the feet of my pigeons.
|
02:19 pm - Force Vomit tonight
If you happen to be in Malaysia.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
tajmall's journal