Infant Propaganda

Can you imagine being in a car with your kids and all they listen to are those repulsive bands you profusely hate and every time you try to change it they throw a manifold of tantrums at you? Wouldn't it be great if your kids share your music genre? Well now you can with a little help of some music CDs and infant propaganda.

"Rockabye Baby!" are lullaby covers of rock bands and popular artists. Among those adapted are Coldplay, U2, the Beatles, Radiohead and Greenday. Now all you have to do is play this every night and they'll surely be... pursuaded to follow in your footsteps. Nothing like brainwashing your children before society does. (***it's for their own good!***)

Thanks to Ms. Madison for the tip.

The Perfect Soundtrack For...

Acoustic guitars, gentle rythms, sensible drum beats, the occasional piano notes and an everyday voice: the perfect recipe for an easy listening album. Jack Johnson's style is so undemanding that you'd be listening through his newest album without a single touch of hesitation. 'Sleep Through the Static' is the perfect soundtrack for:
1. Sunday driving.
2. After-hours in the office waiting for the rain to stop, cursing silently on your God given lack of skill to multi-task which naturally makes you extremely focused on one job while at the same time disregarding everything else including bringing your raincoat to work since you're using the friggin motorcycle that day.
3. The long and winding drive home after going on a what-you-hoped-was-a date date with the perfect illustration of God's creation you've secretly fallen in love with for a long time just to be ditched after an hour of apparently-it-wasn't-a-fucking-date date and all the while vowing to yourself not fall down that same old well again though you desperately wished every single call coming out of your cellphone to be from her (while most of it was from work, why God, why!?).
4. Writing down a suspiciously detailed blog entry (mixed with 'Continuum', 'Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings', and 'Parachutes').

Details are meant to be impartial to any of the writer's or his colleagues' past experience.

... or are they?

Covered in Rain

This is one of the very few songs that encourages me to sit back, close my eyes and listen, really listen to every rhythm, every note and every sound.

Incubus Live in Jakarta!

Incubus is coming to town! At first I thought, yeah right, must be one of those rumors we've heard about so many times. But hey, THEY ARE COMING, believe you me. This has been the best news I've heard all year. Can't wait till next year... WHICH IS THREE DAYS AWAY, HELL YEAH!

Restoring My Faith in the Local Music Scene

I consider myself a very open minded person, but when it comes to music, I'd be like my nephew with veggies. Constantly observing his food for those icky, yucky, slimy, smelly green stuff, he's a walking talking (and most of the time running and screaming) vegetable filter. Now I know this may sound conceited and arrogant, but I filter my music just like my nephew does with his veggies. I find it highly offensive if a band that has no musicality, only uses the same 3 chords excessively, and has music with lyrics which could easily be mistakable as daily conversations between idiots has been overly appreciated by the public. Incidentally, I have this huge problem with the local music scene. None of em seem to please my ear buds. None of them, except this band right here! Enter Padi. Their music = my taste. Those are not lyrics they're singing. Those are poetry, my friends, unadulterated poetry. And music without poetry is like Beavis without Butthead.

Say, by John Mayer

Rejoice, John Mayer fans! His new song is on the horizon. The song is titled "Say" and it's the soundtrack of the upcoming Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman movie, "The Bucket List". You can check out the song on his blog.

Signal Fire Marathon

Have you heard the new Snow Patrol Song? I have, and I'm lovin it (Parappa pappa... anyone? No? Ok...). It's called Signal Fire and it's on the spiderman 3 soundtrack (disappointing movie). Currently it's number one on my 'top 25 playlist' in iTunes. The music video have also captivated me. Take a look-see.


Oh, and for the musicians out there, I'll throw in the lyrics in case you suddenly feel the urge to sing. The chords are quite simple, really. A F#m E D for the verses, and A E F#m D for the chorus.

Signal Fire
by Snow Patrol

Verse 1

The perfect words never crossed my mind,
'cause there was nothing in there but you,
I felt every ounce of me screaming out,
But the sound was trapped deep in me,
All I wanted just sped right past me,
While I was rooted fast to the earth,
I could be stuck here for a thousand years,
Without your arms to drag me out,

Chorus

There you are standing right in front of me (x2)
All this fear falls away to leave me naked,
Hold me close cause I need you to guide me to safety
No I wont wait forever (x2)

Verse 2

In the confusion and the aftermath,
You are my signal fire,
The only resolution and the only joy,
Is the faint spark of forgiveness in your eyes,

Chorus

There you are standing right in front of me (x2)
All this fear falls away to leave me naked,
Hold me close cause I need you to guide me to safety,
There you are standing right in front of me (x2)
All this fear falls away to leave me naked,
Hold me close cause I need you to guide me to safety,
No I wont wait forever (x3)

New Linkin Park Album

Just visited www.linkinpark.com. LP's got a new album titled 'Minutes to Midnight'. The album took a total of 14 months of rigorous studio time. Initially released on summer 2006, the band pushed back the release date to Monday, May 14. The band just finished shooting the video for their first single 'What I've Done', directed by Joe Hahn, which will be released on April 2.

"This was a year-and-a-half long process of really hard work and experimentation in the studio that yielded about 150 rough songs," guitarist Brad Delson told Billboard.com. The band recorded 17 tracks and is now deciding which ones will make the final cut.

The new album was produced by lead singer Mike shonoda and the multiple Grammy award-winning producer, Rick Rubin. 'Minutes to Midnight' will deliver "more of a stripped down, classic-rock, and hip-hop kind of feel," frontman Chester Bennington revealed in Blender magazine. Describing the album as "dark and spooky, poppy, and very melodic," Bennington declared his band is "straying away from a lot of the predictable sounds [it] had in the past [by] using vintage guitars and drums made out of wood and skin for a more tribal sound. It's definitely not nu-metal."

The full track list:
1. Stand
2. Bleed It Out
3. Get Through
4. What I've Done
5. In This World
6. The Little Things Give You Away
7. Hold Nothing Back
8. Over The Top
9. Prommise
10. Real Life
11. Afraid This Time
12. 2.World
13. Until The End
14. Collapsing The Unit
15. We Use the Pain
16. One Perfect Something + Bonus Tracks
17. No Way!

UPDATE:
They changed their genre... I like the old LP better, give me back the old LP... .

Guess Where I Went Last Night!

Okay, here's the scoop, I went to the guys' graduation ceremony yesterday. Took pictures of 'em and their families (and also their boy/girlfriends, fiances, spouses - my God I'm getting old). We went to a mall later on, celebrating their new status as the unemployed workforce. As for me, I had been in a really bad mood from the start of the day. Fortunately, Ms. B came to the rescue. She called me when I was eating a cleverly disguised beef bowl rice bowl (90% rice, 8% beef, 2% bowl). Here's how it went:

Me: Yes?
B : Where are you?
Me: At a mall with the guys, wassup?
B: Well... I got two free press passes for the Hoobastank Concert tonight.
Me: What? Like? This night?
B: Yeah, just got it from a co-worker from a sister magazine.
Me: What time will they be they playing?
B: 8-ish
Me: That's like... less than 3 hours. Count me in!
B: Okay, C U!

Next thing I know, after gloating to the guys (har har har, sorry guys, if she had more than 2 tickets, I'd be glad to share it with you) I rushed to her office, and hightailed it to Hooba. We arrived at 8.40, parked, hustled by the parking guy to pay 20.000 rupiahs up front (that's a little more than two bucks - extremly expensive for Jakarta standards, but if you don't pay up, you'll find scratch marks on your car when you get back, freakin assholes).

By then the band had already started their first song. So we rushed to the entrance, met several artists along the way, some of which B greeted like a friend (working in the media does have its priviledges). When we went inside, the place wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be (unlike the Linkin Park concert awhile back). We went to the edge of the crowd and enjoyed the first song that we heard that night. I also got to practice my photography skills with my dad's smaller semi pro Canon Powershot G7 (too bad I didn't bring my SLR, it's really hard to take pictures under poor lightings).











Before I went to the concert, some friends told me that Hoobastank was not that good in doing live performances. Well, they sure proved 'em wrong last night. The concert was great! Douglas Robb, the frontman and vocalist, was able to communicate well with the crowd. He also memorized some basic Indonesian like "bagus!" (good!) and "nyanyi sama-sama!" (let's sing together!). The crowd really loved him for it. Dan Astrin on the guitars kicked ass last night. And so was Chris Hesse on the drums. The crowd sang happy birthday for him. It's his 27th birthday, according to Doug (Yeah right, Doug...).

Can't wait for the next (free) concert! Har har har.

Me and My Rusty Guitar Fingers

I've been listening to Depapepe lately. I'm not really a big fan of J-Pop, but this one, I can enjoy. Just two guys with two guitars. Usually the first guy plays the rhythm, while the other bangs on with straightforward melodies. They're really easy on the ears but memorable from the very first time you hear them. Air guitaring and the occasional head banging is not very common when it comes to accoustic pieces, but I'll make an exception for this band. I do agree with you, the name IS stupid. But as soon as you hear their music, it doesn't matter.

That said, I've developed a sudden craving for the 6 strings. It has been almost a year since I last played touched my guitar. Thanks to these guys, yesterday I cleaned up my rusty accoustic, changed the strings, and got iTunes on repeat. The initial plan was to learn those straightforward melodies and copy them. Well, at least that was the plan. Turns out, these fingers are as rusty as those old strings. I never was a great guitarist. No, that would be this guy, but I ain't that bad. Alas, you can't tell by the way I'm playing now. T_T

Continuum - John Mayer or John Mayer Trio?

Just bought John Mayer's new album, "Continuum". Hoped that it would offer a blast of songs that would, theoretically, challenge us emotionally. "Room for Squares" and "Heavier Things" forced the listeners to think hard about love and life. John's songs was a mix of bublegum pop melody with mature lyrics.

Back to continuum, first impression, too many John Mayer Trio and not enough John Mayer. It's a blues album fer cryin out loud! Where's the old bubblegum pop that I've come to love? You may say that my music preference is so dull. But am I so wrong to have hoped that John stays his course on Continuum? He unleashed his craving for blues on "Try!", the John Mayer Trio album (which, ironically, I find more entertaining than Continuum). I assumed that he would go back to his old genre on this album. I was dissapointed on that aspect.

But wait, this IS still a John Mayer album, right? What defines the old John Mayer other than the bublegum pop melody was the older than his body themes encaptured in the lyrics. At least his lyric writing skills are still intact, even better. He sums up an entire generation's conscience on "Waiting on the World to Change", just pay attention to "it's not that we don't care, we just no that the fight ain't fair". In "Belief" he sings "we're never gonna win the world, we're never gonna stop the war, we're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for" summing up the whole war in the name of religion. Well, at least he still manages to come up with deeper lyrics.

**Update**
After a year or so of listening back and forth to Continuum, I must confess that I was wrong as hell. This album has been on the top of my playlist. Sorry about that, John.