POP CULTURE AS SEEN AND HEARD BY KEVIN MATHEWS
(Press release)
Universal Music Singapore and Topman are pleased to announce ‘SPECTOR – LIVE IN SINGAPORE’ on Thursday, 4th October 2012 at Avalon. Set to bring their indie-chic style and signature tunes to town, the show follows the success of their addictive singles – ‘Chevy Thunder’, ‘Celestine’, ‘Never Fade Away’ and their #1 debut album Enjoy It While It Lasts!
Two entire days of Toys, Games and Comics goodness at STGCC 2012! Here’s what we are recommending you should check out.
Never mind the sumptuous 72-page zine, there is enough oomph in the eleven remastered track CD to keep Beach Boys fans interested. Never mind that the track-listing itself is fairly predictable.
Continue reading “THE BEACH BOYS: 50TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE”
Last Saturday (18 Aug), I had such a fun time interviewing 4 members of Rivermaya at the Hard Rock Cafe Singapore, before their show got started. These guys are so playful, and they’re such a laugh to be with! As I was sitting down to interview Mark Escueta (vocals/guitar/djembe), Mike Elgar (vocals/guitar), Norby David (vocals/bass) and Ryan Peralta (drums/keyboard), they started asking me a whole bunch of questions instead, and got me thinking, “Hey, wait a minute here, so who’s interviewing who??” Very quickly though, they got settled in to answering my questions, punctuating their replies with lots of laughter, and before we knew it, time was up! They were out the door for their soundcheck, leaving me with a great big smile on my face, as I hit rewind on my voice recorder to listen to this…
Bluesman Joe Bonamassa will be back in Singapore on 17 September at the Esplanade Concert Hall. Power of Pop sent Bonamassa a bunch of questions by email and we set out the responses below.
PoP: You average almost an album a year – what motivates you to be so prolific?
JB: I like to work and I also like to play all styles. It’s that combination that makes it seem that I put out an album every year. But it averages a year to a year and a half between albums.
This one’s for us geeks! STGCC (Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention) is back!!
More information at the Official Site.
Power of Pop will be covering both days of the convention so stay tuned!
It’s hard not to be smitten by Czech singer-songwriter Marketa Irglova. The young ‘girl’ from the Once movie, with her naive charm and baby-face appeal certainly captured the hearts of the audience at the Esplanade Recital Studio on Thursday night. Backed by Aida Shahghasemi (on Daf and vocals), Rob Bochnik (on guitars and vocals) and Joe Doyle (on bass) – the latter two also being part of The Frames and Swell Season – the music was presented in subdued tones, which suited the surroundings perfectly.
Continue reading “MARKETA IRGLOVA – LIVE IN SINGAPORE [REVIEW]”
Ian Astbury and the gang are back and not taking any prisoners with its patented goth-hard-rock combo. New album Weapon of Choice is one for the headbangers. Read my review at TODAY. Opening track “Honey From a Knife” gets its own official video. Horns up!
Back in the good ol’ days, Power of Pop focused mainly on the Pop Underground – melodic pop-rock inspired by the 60s/70s. Much of the content is no longer available and so this special feature will correct that oversight. Get ready to be educated, hipster kids!
John Hermanson is perhaps best known as one half of Storyhill, a folk duo that has achieved minor commercial success – the press release boldly proclaims that Storyhill has sold more than 35,000 CDs. Personally, I am not sure if such a statement is a pro or con in respect of promoting Alva Star. Whatever.
Conventional wisdom dictates that reviews should never be personal but instead should be utterly objective. Well, one of the perks of owning and editing your own webzine is that you can totally ignore these ‘rules’! So before I get into the review proper of The Beach Boys concert in Singapore at the Indoor Stadium, I need to share with you some background information.
Continue reading “THE BEACH BOYS – LIVE IN SINGAPORE [REVIEW]”
When I interviewed Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos a couple of months ago, he expressed a certain incredulity when I asked him whether he expected to be playing in places like Singapore, when he started to put together his music seriously, all those years ago. I am sure that he was equally blown away by the ecstatic response from the packed out Esplanade Concert Hall on Tuesday night, consisting mainly of tween hipster kids!
Back in the good ol’ days, Power of Pop focused mainly on the Pop Underground – melodic pop-rock inspired by the 60s/70s. Much of the content is no longer available and so this special feature will correct that oversight. Get ready to be educated, hipster kids!
Can I boast a little? I actually had the distinct privilege of listening to these songs in Carpenter’s Sydney suburban studio sometime in March, earlier this year.
Back then, two tracks clearly stood out – the poptastic “Emily Says” and the gorgeous Crowded House-evoking “Good Enough” – as good as any pop songs you’re likely to hear in 2004.
Continue reading “BLAST FROM THE PAST – THE POP UNDERGROUND”
Come and watch Cosmic Armchair play NOT ONE but TWO sets of LIVE SYNTHPOP original songs at The Esplanade Concourse on
* Wed 29/8 – 8.15pm set
* Fri 31/8 – 7.15pm set
– with Cosmic Jane on vocals and keyboards, and Cosmic Ben on keyboards and touchscreens. Admission is free.
You’ll hear favourites from the duo’s EP A Second Look and new songs from its upcoming album Contact. Esplanade shows start on time, so please don’t be late. Then leave your email address and you’ll get an exclusive song after the show!
More details and samples of Cosmic Armchair music at www.cosmicarmchair.com
Melbourne-based Singapore singer-songwriter Charlie Lim stops by his hometown for a Late Nite showcase at the Esplanade Recital Studio on 31 August, 2012. Together with his band that features some of Singapore’s finest young talent, Charlie will debut new unreleased material alongside hits from his brilliant debut EP.
Following Singapore, Charlie will be performing shows in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Manila; and at the Jarasum International Jazz Festival in Korea, from September through to December.
To buy tickets to Charlie’s Late Nite showcase, go to the Esplanade Box Office, or
http://www.esplanade.com/whats_on/programme_info/latenite_in_transit/index.jsp
Official Site
What do DJ Tiesto, Nas and Mike Angelakos of Passion Pit have in common?
Artistes of different genres, but all featured on one album – that is, the upcoming fifth studio release and fourth English offering by Nelly Furtado titled The Spirit Indestructible, due out for release sometime in the middle of September 2012.
Continue reading “NELLY FURTADO – THE SPIRIT INDESTRUCTIBLE SHOWCASE”
Back in the good ol’ days, Power of Pop focused mainly on the Pop Underground – melodic pop-rock inspired by the 60s/70s. Much of the content is no longer available and so this special feature will correct that oversight. Get ready to be educated, hipster kids!
After going MIA for almost a decade, Bobby Sutliff returns with a spiffy new album of prime jangle pop. Sutliff did the bulk of his music-making in the 1980s releasing several albums under his own name (viz Another Jangly Mess, Only Ghosts Remain) and with partner Tim Lee as the Windbreakers (viz Terminal, At Home With Bobby & Tim and Electric Landlady).
We just got an email from Oz-based singer-songwriter Charles J Tan.
My new album is launching in a few months’ time! I am very excited to be doing a crowd funding campaign.
Very few asian musicians have started crowd funding and I am elated to be at the forefront of this new movement.
The album will be titled, Maybe Somewhere North, releasing around October/November 2012. We are in the final stages of recording, mixing and mastering the album to be ready and cannot wait for it to be out!
While waiting for the album to be ready, I am raising funds through a fan funding site for the release.
The campaign has an easy to remember URL – fundcharles.com – hosted on IndieGogo.com
Check out the campaign video below.
It’s entirely appropriate that a conceptual art-rock band like The Dandy Warhols eschews standard rock cliches to embrace bigger ideas. The band has released its 8th album – This Machine – and new single “Alternative Power to the People” is a protest song where the singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor is unable to articulate his words because (as we see in the official video) he mouth is GAGGED! Brilliant. Check it out!
Twee pop powerhouse The Camerawalls is back with a new single – “Wanderlust” and an upcoming South-East Asian tour. As is typical from any music coming from Clementine and company, “Wanderlust” is a tasty slice of 80s indie pop heaven, with jangly guitars, jazzy chords, sweet harmonies and fragile melodies.
Yellowcard is back with new album (Southern Air) and new single (“Here I Am Alive”). This is the official video. Enjoy.
Purchase the music video at iTunes.
If you are born in the 90s, chances are The Click Five would have been a significant part of your teenage life.
Now the frontman of the band, Kyle Patrick, is going solo. He says, “I’m trying to reinvent myself. As I grow older, their life gets into a pattern, and now I just wanna get out of the pattern. The band [The Click Five] is not splitting up. They have been really supportive about this [EP] and I am supportive of them [in productions and compositions they do] as well.”
(Press release)
Wait no more, Singapore. The runaway worldwide smash hit musical, JERSEY BOYS currently playing in major cities worldwide including New York, Las Vegas, London, Auckland, Brisbane and across USA, makes its Singapore premiere at the Sands Theater at Marina Bay Sands on Thursday, 22 November 2012 for a 14-week season. Tickets for Jersey Boys are on sale from Tuesday, 21 August.
One of my favourite singer-songwriters from the Pop Underground, Frank Bango impressed me with his erudite/caustic lyrics delivered by a Elvis Costello-inspired larynx and a pop sensibility that cherry picked the best bits of the great pop songwriters of the previous decades.
“Summerdress” is a standout track amongst standout tracks (!) found on the wonderful The Sweet Songs of Decay (fuckin’ love that title) which finds Costello fronting Belle & Sebastian coming across melancholy and bittersweet with a sound that matches folk-rock and chamber pop! Magnificent. Check out the video (audio only) below and stay tuned for the next Blast of the Past featuring the incomparable Frank Bango!
Back in the good ol’ days, Power of Pop focused mainly on the Pop Underground – melodic pop-rock inspired by the 60s/70s. Much of the content is no longer available and so this special feature will correct that oversight. Get ready to be educated, hipster kids!
Wisely returns with a rustic snapshot of arch powerpop that (largely) eschews orchestration for a more earthy flavour. Gone is the lush soft pop Wisely has long been associated with and in its place a pleasing sinewy melodic folk-rock that grabs hold of your heart from track one and never lets go.
Can’t say The Obs have ever been into the nationalistic thing. But our bond and deep attachment to Singapore is undeniable. Like it or not, it is home to us and always will be. This country is yours and ours, the people’s, lest we forget.
Watch at Vimeo.
Anger & Futility from The Observatory on Vimeo.
Performed live at the ‘Enter The Catacomb’ sessions at Goodman.
Filmed by Ler and his superb team at birdmandog.com
National Day Special
CATACOMBS – DELUXE CD at $20 last day (12 Aug)
Buy at:
www.theobservatory.com.sg or thru Paypal.
Follow the Headworm Hole on 24th & 25th August. Buy tickets.