Extra tickets for Death Cab in Singapore

So one of our good looking readers has got an extra ticket to let go. Tickets are long since sold out so this is like  discovering a fucking oil field.

Email Kelly at
kellykellykellykellykellykelly_@hotmail.com

This is for the 108 seating. Her loss, it’s your gain.

Top 5 Desert Island Covers of my Life: #2

Most purists will tell you that Led Zeppelin is perhaps the most influential rock outfit in their lives. Their very existence shaped the way the world looks at artistic rock music in a whole new damn.

I tried listening to them. Gave their most critically acclaimed songs a spin from Kashmir to Dazed and Confused but I just couldn’t connect. The only song that truly stands out from them remains and forever will be the majestic Stairway to Heaven.

Robert Plant, however transcends the band he used to front. Most rockers seem to fade into time with age. Jon Bonjovi is the most famed example. From his mammoth days of old school Bonjovi with songs like You Give Love a Bad Name, Living on a Prayer, Blaze of Glory, he goes to write tracks like Thank You for Loving Me or even that god awful Make Me a Memory.

Robert Plant, vocalist extraordinaire has gone soft from his hard rock days but his mellowness seeps of brilliance, not corny mellow like my ex hero Bonjovi does. A sweeping example of this is his take on the legendary Tim Buckley track, Song to the Siren.

The simple instrumentation couples with his soft sweeping voice does wonders to the soul. It breaks, it shatters, it heals, it mends, it tugs, it pulls and it ends with a kaleidoscope of awe.

TIm Buckley is legendary just as much as his son. But Robert Plant took his song and brought it to my knees and made me bend to every emotion he could possibly invoke with his careful tender voice.

#2 of the my top 5 cover songs ever: Robert Plant’s Song to the Siren

Download the song HERE.

Top 5 Desert Island Covers of my Life: #3

I seriously don’t understand-lah whats the fascination with Oasis. From where I come from, Oasis is regarded as gods of rock and roll or something. I don’t know. But I clearly remember how during my school days a few of my classmates will sport Oasis CD’s and then talk about how freakishly awesome they are.

Standard affair only-la. The only thing fun about them is the constant drama Liam keeps making that keeps us entertained like one of those soap operas my mother loves to watch. But even that gets old after a while.

Ok fine – I love Champagne Supernova. And Don’t Look Back in Anger. And Cast No Shadows. And Stop Crying Your Heart Out. Aiya a lot more but that’s not the point. They do write good songs. Good but nothing great.

Until of course Ryan Adams came along and stole their thunder.

#3 on the 5 cover songs I’ll bring with me if I’m stranded on a desert island

Ryan Adams – Wonderwall

Oasis’s Wonderwall was good but Ryan Adams’ is a fucking Masterpiece. A brilliant bloody take. The Pulp Fiction of music. Symphony #5 to my ears. The holy grail of sound.

Download the song HERE.

Top 5 Desert Island Covers of my Life: #4

I have always been fascinated by acoustic movements of music. There is just something very charming about plugging off your equipment, sitting in the dark and privately singing from the soul.

#4 on the 5 cover songs I’ll bring with me if I’m stranded on a desert island

Iron & Wine – Such Great Heights

Sam Beam, better known as his stage name Iron & Wine is a very intimate musician. His husky, whispy vocals often accompanied by a slide guitar always tugs strings at my heart. I imagine going to Paris, sitting in a park bench in the middle of the night, the dark sky illuminated by faraway lights of the Eiffel Tower and Sam, standing meters aparts, busking away as tenderly as the first day of a brand new romance.

As you may know, Such Great Heights is an electronic song originally performed by The Postal Service. Iron & Wine took it down, stripped it off it’s complex rhythm and perform it solo with a lone guitar.

I am completely, utterly amazed by how he still manages to retain the beauty of a song even after taking out all the bravado and grandiose arrangement it originally had.

Iron & Wine’s Such Great Heights ranks at #4 on my Top 5 Desert Island Cover of all time.

Download the song HERE.

Top 5 Desert Island Covers of my Life: #5

I am extremely particular about the music that goes into my ears. Put on a boyband piece and I’ll groan in terror. Play a mediocre band who spots heavy goth make up to mask the lack of creative drive (Cough…MCR….Cough..Linkin) and i’ll bitch to kingdom come. Blast a cover song and i’ll definitely furrow my forehead with disapproval.

However there have been exceptions. Air Supply for example is one of my guilty pleasures. And yes I was at Genting last month when they came down. Meatloaf, for another, sits well on one of my greatest music acts of the century.

I don’t normally like cover songs simply because I feel that a musician’s worth is judged by how visionary he/she is in composing their art. However, in the respect of exceptions and in tribute to how brilliant some musicians are in evolving a song, I present to you my top 5 desert island cover songs.

#5 on the 5 cover songs I’ll bring with me if I’m stranded on a desert island

Youth Group – Forever Young

Australian band, Youth Group covered the classic Alphaville song, giving it a fresh and bold new approach. The original was already such a beautiful song but this cover, with its lush instrumentation and heartwrenching guitar lines certainly takes the cake as one of my favorite covers.

Now, I was born in the 80s so I do have a soft spot for 80’s music but there are times even the charming groovy big hair thing gets a bit too much for me. Youth Group took that away with their version of Forever Young and it forever sealed my love for one of the most impeccable songs ever written in the 80s.

Ok fine. I admit. Hearing it on The OC might have somehow kinda swayed my concrete wall a little. Stay tuned for #4.

Come on. Humor me. Tell me your #5 desert island cover song.

Download the song HERE.

Damien Rice Pt 1: The Musical Obsession of my Life

There are 3 things in the last decade that I’ve considered my greatest discovery. In no particular order,

1) Lost

2) Marijuana

3) Damien Rice

Damien Rice is not just a musician to me. The same way Michael Jordan is not just a basketball player. The same way a Mustang is not just a car.

His breath-taking song, The Blower’s Daughter is a masterpiece. The first time I heard it, I was mesmerized.

Entranced.

Then I heard his debut album, O and i was obsessively in awe of his greatness.

Turn off the lights. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Draw the blinds. Put on O, listen from start till the end and be taken into another plane.

This is thinking music. If you’re expecting to jump for joy and dance with the stars with this record, then you’re sorely mistaken.

Damien makes you reflect. He makes you talk to your soul. He makes you feel every beat of your heart.

Be prepared for it is going to skip.

Download Amie, from the album O HERE.

A little electronica lesson from Belgium

Since we’re on the topic of Electronic musicians, it is natural for me to think of Styrofoam. Styrofoam is a one man indie electronica project based in Belgium. Now I don’t know much about him but he has worked with alot of big names ranging from Ben Gibbard, Josh Rouse and Jim Adkins so there has to be some credibility there.

I’ve heard A Thousand Words, his 2nd studio album and it is good. Not in the same league as Postal Service’s Give Up, but then again I might be just biased considering I think Ben Gibbard was put on this earth solely to write songs. Electronic music has seen quite a rebirth these days especially with the creation of home based recording softwares like Pro Tools, Audacity and stuff.

To get to know Styrofoam better, let’s give a listen to My Next Mistake. Featuring Jim Adkins on vocals, you know it’s going to be an amazing song. If you don’t know who Jim Adkins is, shame on you, He’s the lead for Jimmy Eat World and he is bloody influential on this track. Listen to his soaring voice coarse itself over the glitch electronic rhythm. Styrofoam is from Belgium and with his penchant for writing songs judging from this track, you know he would have been the biggest thing since blue cheese if he was born in America.

Oh and if you’re a programmer or graphic designer who’s looking for a job, my company’s hiring so check out the advert here

Download My Next Mistake by Styrofoam featuring Jim Adkins HERE.