S-ROCK

Deon-sm

Some news and happenings from the little red dot.

DRU CHEN – FALL ASIA TOUR

In anticipation of his upcoming second single “Turnaround” from Intentions 

EP, Dru Chen and his soulful 6-piece band will return to Singapore to perform two shows, followed by two more in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Earlier this year, at Mosaic Music Festival in Singapore, Dru released the EP’s lead single “You Bring Out The Best In Me”. The funky anthem has since been picked up by radio and bloggers internationally, and it’s accompanying über -energetic and dance-friendly music video has garnered 17,500 views.

During a two-month tour across Australia (including headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane), Intentions EP completely sold out! After printing a second batch of CD’s, Dru will continue touring Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines in the Fall of 2013.

The tour will kick off on August 30 at Night Festival. On September 6, Dru will perform at MAAD Sounds. His backing band includes Adam Shah (Muon), Gareth Fernandez (Kings SG), Tok Xue Yi (Huckleberry Friends), Weiye Tan and Tony Shen. The tour also brings Dru and band over to Malaysia and the Philippines, with singer-songwriters Carlos Castaño and Brisom.

Complete with blazing guitar solos, shimmering keyboards, soulful harmonies, beat boxing, and a tight rhythm section, don’t miss Dru Chen as he brings his trademark pop-savvy funk & soul to Singapore.

Dru Chen Fall Tour Dates:

Aug 30 – Night Festival, The Substation, Singapore
Sept 6 – MAAD Sounds, Red Dot Museum, Singapore
Sept 13 – The Bee, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sept 14 – Secret Show, Penang, Malaysia
Sept 27 – 19East, Makati, Philippines
Sept 28 – SaGuijo, Makati, Philippines

E:
W: http://druchen.net
F: http://facebook.com/druchenmusic
T: http://twitter.com/druchenmusic
Y: http://youtube.com/druchenmusic

DEON TOH INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN

After a year of working out new material, DEON is on the cusp of completing his debut album Antiphobic. A culmination of his past two years as a solo artist in the Singapore scene, Antiphobic is the cathartic release of stories that have surrounded the people closest to him. Be it an ode to love, an exposition on the stubborn permanence of blood ties, or a rousing call for self-worth – the album is a pill. It is an antidote of positivity against the fears that have at one point or another unaffirmed the belief in love, its power to heal, uplift, and conquer all.

The indiegogo campaign is essential in helping DEON complete the album and fulfill a lifetime worth of dreams. Since releasing demo Letters, DEON has gone on to grace such major stages as Canadian Music Week 2013, Baybeats 2012, the NOISE Singapore Showcase and many more. The erstwhile drummer of the now defunct Flybar is looking make imprints on the regional scene with his own brand of brilliant song-craft.

However, Antiphobic requires the support and help from as many as possible. Pledging will help us push through the final hurdle to finish the album. Funds will go directly to production, mastering, and packaging costs that will help make Antiphobic a reality.

Please visit http://igg.me/at/deondebutalbum for more details.

…still there’s more…

GEEK OUT!

KICK ASS 2

I ain’t gonna sugar coat it – there is no justification for this pointless sequel, except the studio’s blind greed. I loved the first Kick Ass, I found it inventive, invigorating and highly entertaining with Chloe Moretz’s Hit Girl the icing on the proverbial cake.

Everything about this sequel is just wrong – not least the entire cliched sequence where Mindy MacCready (Hit Girl’s alter ego) attempts to lead a normal life and leaves her vigilante lifestyle behind. And when even scenes with Moretz are not able to satisfy, then it’s clear that the movie is in trouble!

There is nothing remotely interesting about the plot –  predictable and unimaginative – it plods along at a didactic pace that threatened to induce sleep once or twice. Even Jim Carrey’s Captain Stars and Stripes is unable to inject any real humour into the proceedings.

By the time, the movie arrives at its inevitable denouement – the big battle between super-heroes and super-villains – one is simply past caring – there is hardly any depth of characterization that would encourage the audience to invest any concern regarding the ultimate fates of the characters.

Avoid.

Seriously.

TRAILERS

Gravity (Opens on 3rd October)

Mexican Alfonso Cuaron earned his reputation as a leading cutting edge director with Children of Men, th etrailer for the upcoming Gravity (starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock) certainly looks pretty enough but somehow Bullock’s cries for help is difficult to reconcile with a seriously cool flick. I am hoping that there’s more to the movie than the trailer suggests.

Ender’s Game (Opens on 7th November)

Orson Scott Card’s epic tale of gifted children recruited to fight an alien invasion of Earth finally hits the screen with controversy over Card’s anti-gay opinions threatening overshadow the merits of the movie itself. The trailer looks intriguing enough though…

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ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY: INCH CHUA – BUMFUZZLE [REVIEW]

Inch

 

Sometimes, as a reviewer, one gets confronted with music that gets so much under one’s skin that it almost becomes nigh impossible for said reviewer to come up with descriptions that will do remote justice to the thoughts and emotions coursing through the synapses.

I have known Inch Chua for about six years now – from back in the day when she fronted indie rock outfit Allura with no small measure of aplomb and dynamism. When the band went on indefinite hiatus, Inch embarked on a solo project which she has pursued aggressively and ambitiously beyond our shores in Los Angeles.

Her sophomore effort – Bumfuzzle (co-produced with Leonard Soosay and Mark John Hariman) – has been percolating through my senses for a couple of months now and in my humble estimation, one of the finest musical works ever produced by Singaporeans.

Continue reading “ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY: INCH CHUA – BUMFUZZLE [REVIEW]”

THE XX – LIVE IN SINGAPORE [REVIEW]

The xx
2 August 2013
The Star Performing Arts Centre
by Melissa Ng

The xx played to a very enthusiastic crowd last Friday at The Star Theatre at The Star Vista, which was packed to the brim. Besides playing to 5000 fans, there was also an additional show on Thursday because of the demand. This response just goes to show how popular indie is growing as a genre. This is a remarkable feat for the band, whose last performance in Singapore in 2010 saw them open for Florence + The Machine. Having released two albums, xx and Coexist, the band certainly had more to play around with this time.

Continue reading “THE XX – LIVE IN SINGAPORE [REVIEW]”

BLURB-O-RAMA

BOB

It’s back! Considering the time constraints and attention span of modern web-users, I’ve decided to resurrect trusty ol’ Blurb-O-Rama, which will attempt to distill the essence of an album or EP with 50 or less words. Hopefully, this will be a weekly affair and we’ll focus on a trio of albums each time…

Cosmic Suckerpunch-sm

Cosmic SuckerpunchBreathe EP

Melodic rock that treads the middle path between The Killers and Kings of Leon, a dynamic hybrid of post-punk and rock n’ roll styles. This 5-track EP is a superb introduction to this LA alt-rock outfit and will provide new listeners with a good sense of the band’s assets – memorable tunes, intense energy and hard driving guitars!
Official Site

 

Wild NothingEmpty Estate EP

This EP follows two well-received full-lengths albums from the Jack Tatum vehicle. The    EP strays slightly from the indie rock/dream pop agenda previously set by adding a  synth-heavy sound that embellishes Tatum’s gift of angular guitar constructs. Songs like  “On Guyot” and “Hachiko” extend Tatum’s experimental pop bent whilst tracks like  “Data World” and “A Dancing Shell” will appeal to the dance pop pundits. Official Site

 

Dirty Beachesdrifters/love is the devil 

Double-album set of experimental, avant garde noise rock. Really? Alex Zhang aka Dirty  Beaches does not hide his arty ambitions at emulating The Velvet Underground with his  droning, repetitive, minimalist approach. Certainly not for all tastes, both albums  consist of live recordings, which either makes this enlightening or exasperating. I figure,  somewhere in the middle. Choice nuggets – “Love is the Devil” and “Berlin”, atmospheric  chaos. Official Site

 

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GEEK OUT!

Super-hero movies. Once upon a time the very idea was a joke. The only successful super-hero movies (Batman, Superman) were the exclusion domain of DC. How that has changed! Marvel characters have become immensely popular with movie fans since the first X-Men movie and this was further escalated by Marvel themselves entering the fray with the first Iron Man movie. With The Avengers generating over a billion dollars at the box office, Marvel licensees like SONY and Fox are dead set on holding on to its prized franchises.

Continue reading “GEEK OUT!”

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD: EMO FASCISM – TAKING STOCK

EmoFASCISMsm

 

So the new album has been out for more than a week now and to be brutally honest, I feel utterly disappointed by the lack of response. But wait…. what did I truly expect? The CDs (and T-shirts) to be sold out and that all my friends would pack out my shows? Ah yes, the problem of unrealistic expectations – the agony of hope not fulfilled.

After all, wasn’t the recording of the album for my own benefit? Yes and no. Indeed, the album has had a carthatic and therapeutic effect on the emotional rollercoaster that is now my daily existence. Yet, one cannot help but yearn for the acceptance of your peers, which is represented (rightly or wrongly) by attendance at shows, CDs and T-shirts sales. With all my low self-esteem issues bundled into and identified with the ‘success’ of the album, you can imagine it has not been an easy week for me.

Add to that complicated relationship difficulties and it’s not too far-fetched to suggest that I feel royally fucked-up at the moment. But wait…. that would ignore the positives and I really need to focus on and give recognition to these factors in order to survive and ultimately thrive. So here goes…

It was wonderful playing with Pat, Ray, Nelson and Ben (aka The Groovy People) and on stage I felt invincible. It has been amazing to collaborate with Lydia once again, she is so talented that my heart wants to burst – she is my protege in every sense of the word. The fact that she disappears before the end of the month makes this even more bittersweet (typical innit?)

To everyone who has attended the shows and purchased the CDs and T-shirts, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart — I do cherish each and everyone of you — you give me hope that maybe I’m not a FAILED MUSICIAN after all….

… still there’s more …

 

 

NOW WHAT?

Where do we go from here? 

The problem with being a jack-of-all-trades is that once I lock into one specific thingy, it’s pretty difficult to keep up with all the other pies I have my fingers in.

Lately, I have been focusing very much on my recording artist hat and this webzine has been somewhat neglected. The visits have dropped dramatically and I am discovering that I don’t really give a fuck. In the past, it used to be that I had to maintain Power of Pop to give attention to obscure – foreign or domestic – bands/artists that I personally dug. But now, it seems that there are a multitude of blogs (I hate that word with a passion!) that serve that function and it seems that Power of Pop has become redundant.

And so, once again, I am at a crossroads, as far as this webzine is concern. After all, Power of Pop has been around since 1998 and it seems a shame to just pack it in but I am still trying to figure where this fits in, in the general scheme of things.

Thus, for the interim period (whatever that means and however long that may take), Power of Pop will no longer be the run-of-the-mill pop culture reviews site that it has been but instead, I want to take a step back and begin writing from a more idiosyncratic perspective. No more standard reviews but something different….

At this point of time, I am mulling over the idea of a weekly column of sorts where I comment on the various pop culture items that catch my fancy… maybe… stay tuned.

… still there’s more …