Filed under: Music
I’m in love. In love, not with a pretty girl with a svelte figure and a cute face, but with half a dozen sweaty American blokes, including a rather “well-rounded” one.
Fruity eh?
But it’s not as queer as you might think. I’m in love with the Dave Matthews Band! I discovered them a few weeks ago, and I had no idea why I’d never really paid attention to their music before. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill 4 piece band. The Dave Matthews Band is a 5-person affair, involving a singer and guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, a violinist, and a saxophonist. Here’s the band performing “Two Step” and “Lie in Our Graves”.
Yes, that’s a violin he’s playing. Not a banjo, not a tuba, but a violin.
Everytime I hear the violins enter in “Lie in Our Graves” (it sounds a whole lot better in the studio recording), I get a mental orgasm. I know this sounds even more fruity, but there’s just no other way to describe it – both the feeling and the music. It’s sort of alternative rock, but it’s sounds so much more musical than most of what I’ve listened to. In fact, it’s more like some kind of weird fusion that actually works. It’s a bit of rock, a bit of funk, a bit of jazz, a bit of country, a bit of something else that I can’t quite figure out, and a lot of music. Wonderful to listen to.
And then there’s the drummer, Carter Beauford. That’s the fat dude sitting behind the drums, but you can’t see him very well, because he’s hiding behind that massive drumkit. And what a drumkit that is. It consists of a whole smorgasbord of toms and cymbals. And the best part is that he actually uses every single bit of the drumkit during his performances! It’s insane! It takes a certain kind of drummer to do that, and Carter Beauford is that kind of drummer, and I absolutely love that kind of drummers.
So if you’ve got the time, do check out the Dave Matthews Band, especially their first 3 studio albums, “Under The Table and Dreaming”, “Crash” and “Before These Crowded Streets”. If they don’t blow you away, you’re probably too fat.
Filed under: Music
Image: Amazon
I don’t usually write about a lot of the albums that I buy, mostly because I’m lazy. So when I overcome my laziness to write about something like an album, it’s usually something pretty special, or I’m really bored and I’ve got nothing better to do. In case though, it was the former.
For the uninitiated, In Rainbows was an album that received much publicity when Radiohead decided to release it not in record stores, but as a download on a dedicated website that allowed people to pay whatever they wanted for the album. The results of that experiment are unclear, because there were no official figures released regarding the amount of revenue generated. But the reason I liked this album so much was not because of its ground-breaking business model.
I usually describe most of the albums I listen to using words like “melancholic”, “grand”, “fresh”, or occasionally, “shit”. In Rainbows called for something on an entirely different level.
“Beautiful”
Yes, In Rainbows is beautiful, and I like songs that make me wanna slit my wrist, jump off a building and sing Don and Drew songs all at the same time. The textures Radiohead tried to create on this album were simply astounding. The song that impressed me the most was ”15 steps”, which is so well-crafted, you don’t quite realise that it runs on a 5/4 time signature until you really listen for it. But almost every song had a feel to it that was both haunting and captivating. Usually, an album that sounds like that tends to get a little old at the end because the listener gets a bit tired of listening to the same stuff over and over again, but this album didn’t have that. Every track sounded different from the one before, but each retained that spine-tingling and attractive quality, except for 2 of them, which is still pretty good for an album. My only gripe is that it only has 10 tracks. But if you’ve got nothing else that’s good enough go onto the album, why bother putting it in, right?
And if you’re thinking of asking me to send you their songs over MSN or something, hold that thought, go down to the record store, and BUY it. I’m not a staunch advocate of respecting intellectual property, but Radiohead really deserves this one.
1 night of brainstorming, 3 practice sessions and a ridculously long email conversation later, and we were gigging (and a maybe bit of giggling too) in Ben & Jerry’s at the Cathay. I screwed up again – the introduction to “Donna Lee” wasn’t supposed to sound the way it sounded, my triplets got away from me the entire night, and the drum shield in front of me made it rather difficult to judge the volume I was supposed to play at. But it was still cool, seeing everyone again after such a long time.
I could do this forever, but I’ve got worse things to do, like bidding for next semester’s modules and wondering how many times I’m going to die within the next 4 to 5 months. All of which will mean that the gig was a one-off, so all of you can breathe a collective sigh of relief, ‘cos you won’t have to bear with my playing for some time yet…
I’ve been having this earworm in my head for the past week, and this one is particularly noteworthy. It’s not too bad to have a nice song for a earworm, perhaps Muse’s “Hysteria”, or “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But the one I’ve had this week was a Praise and Worship song that the Music Ministry were practicing in preparation for the CSSFOC.
It seems that everytime I prepare for a lengthy Praise and Worship session, there will always be a song that makes me wanna just laugh my ass off. During CAW, it was “As A Deer”, thanks to Desmond and Jeremy, who worked together to associate that song with the mental image of a white posterior. This time was no exception. I shan’t say which one it is, since the camp isn’t over yet, but I think the band knows what I’m talking about when I say that it sounds like a television commercial.
Yes, a Praise and Worship song, that sounds like a television commercial, stuck in my head.
But I guess there are more potent combinations of genres out there that can make one’s brain throw up and pee on itself simultaneously. Maybe a pop song that sounds like a porn movie for instance, but anything sung/whined by Sean Kingston should do the trick. The reason there aren’t a lot of interviews of him isn’t because nobody listens to his music (they all listen to his music once). It’s because he paralysed the interviewer’s brain and the camera/recorder with his voice.
I think my brain is starting to swell at the thought of his songs…
And speaking of swelling brains, the examination results are finally out, not that anyone sane would be looking forward to it. They were published 2 days ago on Friday, and I was once again pleasantly surprised, especially looking back at the disaster that was the previous round of tests. It seems that my revulsion towards the field of Electrical Engineering (I’m majoring in Mechanical Engineering by the way, not Electrical) is justified, with that respective module spitting a lousy C+ at me. Despite of that, I was still able to maintain my overall score, which had dropped by just a hundreth of a point. I was actually quite pleased, as I was expecting something a lot worse.
So to celebrate, I decided to buy myself a couple of new toys from Drums Resources, which had recently moved, from the city, into an extremely out-of-the-way location in Henderson Building, which is actually in the middle of an industrial estate full of flatted factories. But it’s not difficult to see the motivation behind the move. The new place is easily 3 or 4 times larger than the old location near the entrance of Peninsular Plaza, which means that he’s able to display a wider array of drumsets and accessories. Nigel, the ever-so-passionate drummer/shopkeeper was still at hand to assist and entertain the customers with his excessive enthusiasm.
His latest find was this really cute looking junior drumset from Ludwig. The cymbals, toms, drum throne, and hardware have all been dwarf-iated, and it was an odd sight watching Nigel mount the thing, telling us that “It’s more than just a toy!” with a grin that was wide enough to slice his face cleanly in half. But it soon became apparent that he was right – the entire set sounds pretty similar to a full-sized kit! It only comes with single-braced hardware though, but for $800+ and such a decent sound, you couldn’t really ask for more. He even imported several pairs of “junior drumsticks” from Pro-Mark to keep in line with the “kids” theme.
I have never seen anything this cute in a music store, ever.
But I wasn’t there to look for birthday gifts for the monsters that are my nephews and nieces. I was there because my “Lightning Rods” were so worn, they were turning into confetti. So the day’s mission was to get a new pair of those, as well as to pick up the SD5’s that I had ordered a couple of months back.
I have yet to open the packaging on the sticks, as I’m planning to do so only during the FOC. But unless Pro-Mark has really screwed this one up, I should be able to retire my Vic Firth SD6’s. The Vic Firths had some really nice felt tips, but the bead end of the sticks sounded a bit hollow, especially when you knock the sticks against each other. The diameter of the SD6 was a bit too large for my liking too, which meant it was never really my favourite. So barring some incredible disaster on the part of Pro-Mark, I should be enjoying my SD5’s a lot more.
But anyway, if you’re looking for a nice drum store to haunt, Drums Resources could be worth a try. It’s located at Blk 221 Henderson Road, Henderson Building, unit number #05-16. And when you’re there say “Hi” to Nigel, and ask him if I could get a discount the next time I visit since I was the one who recommended the store to you (Hahaha). He’s the owner of the store, and is also a rather nice guy who has a real passion for drums, and it shows. And remember to take the correct elevator that services the side of the building where the shop is, just like I did…
… after going to the 5th floor on the wrong side…
Filed under: Music
I spent way too much money during the exam period, and a lot of it went to HMV, and also Sembawang Music, which happens to have a surprisingly good collection of CDs. And by CDs, I mean those not-so-easy-to-find CDs like the Hotel Costes and Saint-Germain-des-Pres compilations. Good music hardly comes by these days, so when I discovered downtempo and jazz 2 years ago (thank you, Lush 99.5), it was a like a breath of fresh air. And now, with those compilations, I finally have a sizeable chill-out collection.
Hotel Costes is a Hotel in Paris, known for its bar and cafe. The series of downtempo compilations released under the Costes name are all mixed by Costes’ resident DJ, Stephane Pompougnac, and the guy is a genius. His choice of tunes - from the likes of Thievery Corporation, Gotan Project, Louie Austen, and Stephane Pompougnac himself - and his mixing style makes every volume of the compilation coherent, complete, and slightly addictive, unless you’re not a fan of downtempo or if you’ve listened to it so much that you’ve gotten sick of it. It’s easy on the ears, and great to listen to after a hard day’s work when all you wanna do is just sit down and rot in your chair. There are 10 volumes in all, not including the “Best of” volume, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to end there.
(Album art: Amazon)
The Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Cafe compilations are named after an area in Paris that contains a number of well-known cafes such as Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots. The compilation supposedly features some of the music that can be heard in the cafes in that area, and sounds slightly less electronic and has a jazz-ier feel to it, as opposed to Hotel Costes’ downtempo beats. This series of compilation is mostly made up of nu-jazz pieces from artists like Bugge Wesseltoft, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Jamie Cullum and Koop. If you love the instrumentation of jazz and the looping beats of trip-hop, Saint-Germain-des-Pres would defintely be worth a listen to. There are currently 9 volumes in this compilation, with volumes 7, 8 and 9 each containing 2 discs worth of music.
(Album art: Amazon)
And both compilations make for great studying music, which I’m probably gonna need again in a few weeks time…
