Junk - Latest Happenings

Feminism and The Smiths rule high with The Fridays

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:45:50 +0800

“We actually never got around to playing covers, mainly because we couldn't,” muses Ashraff Jamil (or Acap), frontman of Malaysian band The Fridays, with an audible smile. This self-deprecating tone permeating our interview is characteristic of a band that once described its output as “bad pop music played by easily satisfied simpletons”. Talk about harsh.

A chance meeting between Acap, Yan (guitarist) and Chey (drummer) at SMK Bukit Indah, Ampang in 1999 formed the core of the punk-informed outfit that would remain unnamed until 2003. Theirs is a kaleidoscopic world brazenly referencing an Edie Sedgwick aesthetic here and a Johnny Marr inflection there–sans the uncoordinated ignominy of a stuttering debutante. The music is, at turns, sarcastic and cultivated; if slightly proletariat in lyricism and possessing a rather kooky sonic palette. “It is mainly a mixture of punk rock and various great frontwomen,” offers Acap. “I’d always liked Natalie Merchant, riot grrl bands, Everything But the Girl and The Kabeedies. [So] The band has always had this tinge of femininity,” opines Acap.

Feminism is a recurrent theme in The Fridays’ tracks–with ‘Hit Her’ (a reference to domestic abuse) and ‘Stars Hollow’ being two salient examples. They are not adverse to flounce down more familiar pop offerings though. ‘My Blur Baby’, for example, tacks a vivacious “la-la-la” at the refrain to catalyse an already decent hook. That aside, it was the band’s devotion to The Smiths that boosted the primacy of the subtle 80s subtext into their songs. “Each and every one of us has held that band very close to our hearts at one point or another,” remarks Acap, the primary lyricist and occasional guitarist. “Us” here also alludes to Wan the secondary guitarist, Said HerrDirektor the keyboardist and Adib holding down the low end.

Classic, outright disillusionment with the scene might have contributed to the band’s self-imposed hiatus for the better part of 2008. That does not discount their prolific and prodigious output though–four EPs since 2005, all of which are downloadable FOC on their MySpace page. In fact, they’ve just wrapped the recording of their latest EP, slated for release this month.

Sticking out like a bulbous middle finger, the band’s regular excursions into untrammelled pop-smithery ensured a growing cult following–having found allies in Joe Kidd of Carburetor Dung and Siang (Umbrella Records exec)–who drolly christened them “the next OAG”. With local organisers thus apprised, these stamps of approval by the grizzled, rock’s elder statesmen has led to ever higher profile gigs–including an opening slot for Indonesian swing band Mocca and a plum slot on MTV Asia.

Compounding this is Acap’s lucid enunciation and sinuous word play–a rarity amongst English-speaking Malaysian bands prone to masticating their lines. “Prosthetic hearts in smithereens/Living this life through magazines/Take off those dancing shoes and scream/Talk is too cheap” laments Acap on ‘Pretty Faces’. To wit, their own ironic admission as “the independent scene’s best kept secret” seems oddly apropos. And it is not just thrasonical. Smart, raucous, pithy and cerebral, The Fridays are the post-modern, thinking layman’s (or Pitchfork-ingesting, college-aged music snob’s) glee pop.

WORDS JARROD PHOTO THE FRIDAYS
www.myspace.com/fantasticfridays

Do music fans dress according to the genres they're into?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:08:34 +0800

A few weeks ago, we went out into the streets and profiled the people who make it all happen–the fans–to find out what makes them the avid devotees they are (there must be some forces at work to compel someone to put on skinny jeans). We put on our lab coats and found out, through rigorous observation and analysis (not really), what they wear and what they listen to as well as attempted to decipher the thick, members-only slang. It's all appearing in the November issue of Junk, but in the meantime, check out the photos below!

THE ELECTRO FANS

THE INDIE FANS

THE REGGAE FANS

THE HIP HOP FANS

Charles Wright and NWA hit the nail on the head: like the fans above, you gotta make a note to express yourself. And you can with YOUREKA!, not only at the exclusive YOUREKA! Finale By Yahoo! but also with the cool prizes you can win by logging on to www.yahoo.com.my!

Check the results of our photo shoot with the fans in our November issue of Junk, out on newsstands soon! And click HERE to see how you can get invited to the YOUREKA! Finale By Yahoo! at CapSquare on 25 November, from 7pm 'til late, with performances by Urbandub from the Philippines, Inspirational Joni from Indonesia, DJ Inquisitive from Singapore and Malaysia's LapSap! Also visit the Facebook page for more info HERE.

PHOTOS WAN ATIF & CIPOI

65daysofstatic to kick off tour in Singapore, Mar 2010

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:57:45 +0800

Progressive rock/post-rock/math rock band 65daysofstatic have been hard at work in the recording studio. The Sheffield quartet are planning to release their album in early 2010, and they've promised their fans a tour. In fact, they blogged about it last month and said that they're kicking off their tour in Singapore. Yup, you read right; they are confirmed to play the Esplanade in Singapore on 13 March 2010. Details to be announced later!

Meanwhile, let's watch a few 65days vids shall we...

Retreat! Retreat!

Hole

Heineken Green Space serves up Mr Flash from Ed Banger

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:58:49 +0800

Heineken Green Space teams up with Future Sound Asia (FSA) to bring you a night of electro mayhem. After weeks of dropping hints and keeping us on our toes, the "mystery guest" has finally been revealed! It's internationally renowned DJ-producer Mr Flash (France) from Ed Banger Records. Local boys LapSap and Goldfish will also be dropping a supersonic set, and local indie label Chic Yamada will be previewing their brand new Spring 2010 collection.

DETAILS
Date: Friday 13 November
Time: 9pm-2am
Venue: Market Place, Lorong Yap Kwan Seng, KL, Malaysia
Entry: By INVITATION ONLY!
Lineup: Goldfish, LapSap and Ed Banger Records' Mr Flash

We've got good news for all of you!! FSA have been kind enough to give us TEN pairs of passes to give out to yall! Follow us on Twitter (JunkOnline) now 'cause we'll be doing the giveaway at 5.30pm today (Monday 9 November)! The first ten peeps to RT our message win it!

UPDATED: (10 Nov)
If your name is on this list please email contests@junkonline.net with the following details:
NAME:
H/P NO:
EMAIL:
IC NO:
TWITTER USERNAME:

Further reading:
Twilight Actiongirl partied it up with Heineken Green Space
Design your own private party with Heineken Green Space
Heineken Green Space - gallery

6 songs that could've been amusing footie anthems

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:10:31 +0800

Footie fans are a cheery lot. And what do cheery lots do, a lot? Besides trying to drink beer from their belly button, that is. Yes, they sing. And boy, do they sing a lot at matches. But we figure some of them have gotten their anthems all wrong considering how things have been going for their team this season. So we've decided to recommend some fitting ones the crowd should be singing instead.

Manchester United
New anthem: Invincible - Muse

_{You better get me some gnomes. Make them hairy!}

Now before I get shot in the crotch by Liverpool supporters for this one, let me clarify that I am hardly referring to the team. I am referring to the man (or alien/monster) called Sir Alex Ferguson. Yeah, the one who sends referees bawling home with their neatly packed lunches. He is touched, only by his wife, and maybe (and this is a big maybe) Christmas gnomes. Certainly not by any disciplinary board.

Chelsea
New anthem: The Blues Are Still Blue - Belle and Sebastian

_{Terry: Why are we smiling? Lamps: This was before we got banned Terry: Oh...shit}

No more new signings for the next two years because of "The Ban" means Frank Lampard might have to take corners from a wheelchair before new reinforcements arrive. Bluey indeed.

Liverpool
New anthem: What's In The Middle - The Bird and the Bee

_{Don't I look like Dirk?}

All the talk is about Xabi Alonso leaving a gap in the centre of midfield that has not quite been filled, but no one's talking about (replacement) Lucas' new-improved hairdo. What a travesty.

Arsenal
New anthem: Beautiful Loser - Suede

_{I'm prettier. No I am. No me. No I am}

The club that plays some of the best and prettiest football. But like a buck-toothed Harvard graduate that wasn't the prom queen's pick in school, being good at something doesn't mean you get to take home the bacon. There needs to be some steel with the good looks.

Manchester City
New anthem: The Mercenary - Iron Maiden

_{Ade prays to the god called Moolah}

Because Manchester City has proven that it's all about the money, and mercenaries only play for the highest bidder. Cue Adebayor, who for the right amount of money would strap your dog on to a rocket and launch it to Mars while scoring a goal against Arsenal and celebrating disrespectully (oh wait, he has already done the latter).

Portsmouth
New anthem: Down Is The New Up - Radiohead

That could be in some ways a reference to the club being relegated this season and coming back up the season after. That, or it's in reference to the amount of time David James has had to pick himself up after letting in a goal. It's an inspirational song. At least we think so.

Further reading:
6 songs that should be on the soundtracks for books
5 superbabe costumes that could make your manhood weak
5 songs never to sing after making whoopee

Whatever happened to Hootie & The Blowfish?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:50:21 +0800

Remember the one episode of Friends? The one where Monica, Ross and Chandler go to a Hootie concert but leave the other three behind. You know, the one where Phoebe joined them for the after-party and got a hickey from a Blowfish? Good times. Icky, but good.

For those of you who can recall that far back, 1990 to 1995 was a simple period that lacked the conscious self-referentiality of today–there was a post-Cold War high, U2 weren’t wankers, Clinton played saxophone on TV (and by sax, we mean an actual sax), and Hootie and the bloody Blowfish were the biggest hit-makers around. They encapsulated the summery feelgood-ness of the era, in their “Hey dude, take a chill pill and have some pizza”, lumpy suburban slacker chic in a way that was the complete opposite of Blind Melon. And they sold millions of records with the monster hits ‘Hold My Hand’ (watch the Sesame Street version!), ‘Let Her Cry’ and ‘Only Wanna Be With You’.

But their absolute lack of any depth or irony (Darius Rucker’s Carolina-bred good ol’ boy vibes notwithstanding) saw them being dropped like a steaming turd when the tide of public consciousness meandered and wavered into post-grunge territory (Kurt Cobain’s spectre still loomed over all that was sunshiney and happy, remember). After Breaking Records, the label they founded, bit the dust, Darius Rucker, in a desperate attempt to get back to his “roots”, recorded an R&B album that received lacklustre fanfare. He then starred as a morose-but-comical looking cowboy in a Burger King ad for their TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch Sandwich. For real.

Hootie got back together in 2008 to play the Vegas circuit. Alas, they recently broke up again so Rucker could focus on his country music (he’s got balls, we’ll give him that), a career that has so far eclipsed the virtually non-existent solo careers of drummer Jim Sonefeld and guitarist Mark Bryan. In the end, the irony that they so lacked before came back to bite them in the ass. Pity, them seemed like a nice bunch of dudes.

WORDS FIL
www.hootie.com

Also read:
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Flashback: Francissca Peter 'Komputer Muzik'
Sonic Youth presents: The definitive book of grunge

Festival Watch: Rock The World 9 (Malaysia)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:17:08 +0800

The lineup for Rock The World 9 is out! And it's a pretty diverse one. There's Zee Avi and Monoloque mixed up with misfits like Kugiran Di Tepi Pantai and Robot Asmara and old bands like Pretty Ugly and John's Mistress making a comeback. The organisers have moved the big production from Stadium Merdeka to Sunway Lagoon (which has suddenly become the venue of choice for big music events). According to the flyer, there will be three stages and more than 60 acts slated to perform at this year's event.

DETAILS
Time: 12pm onwards
Date: 19 December 2009
Venue: Sunway Lagoon, Sunway, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tickets: RM25 (available at Rock Corner, Music Valley and all Extreme outlets)

Lineup:
Love Me Butch
Pop Shuvit
Bunkface
Robot Asmara
Zee Avi
Saturnine
Bittersweet
John's Mistress
Seven Collar T-shirt
Republic of Brickfields
Restraint
Meet Uncle Hussain
Monoloque
Bleeding Mascara
Kugiran Di Tepi Pantai
Azlan & The Typewriters
Brainhead
Car Crash Hearts
Joanna & Co
Pretty Ugly
Skudap Skudip
The Otherside Orchestra
Labrat
Auburn
Couple
40 Winks
Free Love
Y2K
Second Combat
Sam Kuman
Stonebay
Evenstarr
Disagree
Lurks
Aku
Rashdan Harith
Liyana Fizi
Mohd Jayzuan
Azmyl Yunor
Karen Nunis Blackstone
Otam
Shahridir & Nizam P
Blindtribe
Uzumaki
The Times

For more info, log on to the Rock The World official website.

Let's reminisce about last year's Rock The World 8 with some YouTube videos:

Bunkface

Republic of Brickfields

OAG

Best Halloween costume EVER: Video game head

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:28:32 +0800

We apologise for two things. First, this may not be breaking news, but we just had to share it. And second, we didn't just write "EVER" in caps just to get your attention. This may actually be the best Halloween costume ever–sorry, EVER–made. Some dude called Eric Testroete used computer graphics software to render his own face into a wire frame mask that would capture the angular geosphere look you see in videogames. Something like a souped-up mod skin editor for Grand Theft Auto.

The end result is astounding. See for yourself.

View the entire thing (including info on the software he used, and the step-by-step process) on Testroete's website. And don't forget, if you have cool pics of yourself in Halloween dress, just host them and drop us the links in the Comments section below!

Also read:
The All-American Rejects rock Halloween in KL!
3 acts that you should invite to your Halloween party
6 things that share the name Halloween

Jack White to release Stephen Hawking + Carl Sagan collabo

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:10:15 +0800

As if there hasn't been enough bizarreness of late, them Pitchfork boys report that Jack White's Third Man label is releasing John Boswell's 'A Glorious Dawn' as a 7". If you haven't heard, 'A Glorious Dawn' is that spacey YouTube meme which surfaced a while ago, featuring pop astronomers Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking Auto-Tuned and spaced out.

If this is an homage then more power to White. If it is a pisstake, then this postmodern "my dad is odder than your dad ROFL" contest has to stop now, since Sagan is a godlike figure, without whom our knowledge of space would be retarded, and the SETI project would be dead in the mud.

Ok, no need for us to get riled up. It is an homage. On the Third Man site, it says that one side of the vinyl will have an etching from the Voyager Golden Record, and the 9 November release date is what would be the late Sagan's 75th birthday.

Also read:
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Feedback: Whither rock doc?
Jack White in Mutant Swinger From Mars

6 songs that should be soundtracking books

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:23:55 +0800

Photo Surrealism Now

Ever heard a song and went, "Wow, this song and this book would really go well together"? No? Neither have we, since we've been doing too little reading, and too much interwebbing (which would explain why we use words like "interwebbing").

Anyways, after watching the quite brilliant video of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" set against Portishead again, we decided to fire up the noggin, and think of songs that could accompany readings of famous books.* Oh, if you need a spoiler warning about the book endings, have a SPOILER WARNING.

MODEST MOUSE’S ‘THE WHALE SONG’ vs HERMAN MELVILLE’S MOBY DICK
Modest Mouse is easily one of the littier bands around, naming themselves after a Virginia Woolf story and namedropping Charles Bukowski. The Moby Dick allusions arise because Isaac Brock’s permanent sour demeanour and chequered past paint him as sort of an Ahab-like figure, with the elusive and fatal Moby Dick being some semblance of peace of mind the song is called ‘The Whale Song’!

RADIOHEAD’S ‘LET DOWN’ vs. FRANZ KAFKA’S THE METAMORPHOSIS
The uplifting ending parallels Gregor Samsa’s desire for freedom from his rigid miserable existence; but the sentiment is turned into “drivel” when he does grow wings, but those of an large immobile insect, becoming the bane of his family’s existence. Actually it's just because Thom Yorke imagines himself as a bug.

MEW'S 'CARTOONS AND MACRAMÉ WOUNDS' VS. SALMAN RUSHDIE'S HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES
See our review of Mew's No More Stories... .

LEONARD COHEN'S 'FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT' VS. HENRY MILLER'S NEXUS (ROSY CRUCIFIXION)
Mostly because of the superimposition of a Parisian air upon gritty New York in the wee hours of the morning, and the theme of duplicitous relationships. Plus, Miller's Mona is actually a June, and the girl in Cohen's song is a Jane. Freaky.

ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS' 'CRIPPLE AND THE STARFISH' VS. PATRICK HAMILTON'S HANGOVER SQUARE
One of the best songs about being in an abusive relationship, and one of the best books on the same thing. Only Antony Hegarty doesn't kill everyone at the end.

IRON & WINE'S 'PAGAN ANGEL AND A BORROWED CAR' VS. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES' DON QUIXOTE
Sam Beam is probably making an anti-war (and anti-WASP) statement on 'Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car', but the tone of having an illusion shattered so comprehensively fits the end of Don Quixote, when Alonso Quixano regains his sanity. Kinda.

^{*Nick Cave doesn’t count, not only ‘cause he’s written a book, but also because he himself soundtracks said book.}

Also read:
Sonic Youth presents: The definitive book of grunge
This is madness! Billy Corgan talks Carl Jung
4 book-to-console games you need to know about