Pop culture musings by Kevin Mathews
Butch Walker is back with an exciting new album helmed by Ryan Adams, with help from Bob Mould and Johnny Depp (!) and promises to be a celebration of gritty folk, pop and rock. If the album is anything like the gorgeous country-folk tribute to the legendary Chrissie Hynde, then this is going to one of the most anticipated albums of next year. Listen to “Chrissie Hynde” now.
Official Site
Based on what I’ve heard so far from Cold Fronts, the music they write and record is pretty good pop-rock/powerpop, in my opinion. So let’s relax on the indie rock descriptors yeah? The new single “Hit Me” is a cool blast of melodic rock that cannot be ignored. Yeah yeah yeah!!!
Cold Fronts online:
www.coldfronts.us
facebook.com/coldfrontsmusic
twitter.com/coldfrontsmusic
instagram.com/coldfronts
youtube.com/coldfrontsmusic
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Eia (aka Maria Grace Koh) has just finished her studies at LASALLE College of the Arts, where she graduated with First Class Honors in a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts – Music, Vocals and her calibre is self-evident on her soulful new single “That’s the Way” off her upcoming new album. The Bruneian singer-songwriter worked with Marc ‘M. Doc’ Williams (Madonna, Kelly Rowland, Jordin Sparks, K-Ci & Jojo) and C-Ray (EMI Music Publishing, K_Ci & Jojo) of Indasoul Records on her new material and fans of modern R&B will love what Eia has to offer. You can purchase “That’s the Way” at iTunes.
Check out a live performance of “That’s the Way” below.
Fury
Written and Directed by David Ayer.
Starring Brad Pitt, Shia LeBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena.
Yes, movies are a visual medium but without a coherent story, a movie crumbles like a house of cards. Such is the case with WWII flick Fury, which chronicles the misadventures of a tank crew in the final days of the war in Germany.
Consisting of Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt), Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), gunner; Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal), loader, Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Peña), driver and new assistant driver/bow gunner Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), the movie examines the trials and tribulations of this group of soldiers through unflinching albeit exciting battle sequences and also, awkward male bonding scenes.
Continue reading “FURY: WAR IS HELL BUT SOMETIMES A POORLY WRITTEN PLOT IS JUST AS BAD”
Awaken the Dragon is a community art project surrounding the last two remaining Dragon Kilns in Singapore. The project aims to invite 3000 members of the public to participate in making a collective sculpture made from clay and fired in the Dragon Kiln.
The concert is part of the Awaken the Dragon Festival that’s happening from 17-23 November. There will also be demos and workshops by local ceramic artists, arts & crafts stalls, food and drink vendors.
The Observatory, Obedient Wives Club, Stopgap, Lost Weekend and The White Trip Movement will be performing on 22 November from 6:30pm. Admission is free.
For more details on the Festival, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/events/717111341705189/
http://awakenthedragonkiln.wordpress.com/about/
https://www.facebook.com/Awakenthedragonkiln
The 90s Singapore indie music scene returns at the Substation this November with the Where Were You Festival on Saturday November 8th. Although not stated above, also expect The Oddfellows, The Ordinary People and Pink Elephants (!) to be playing as well. More details to come but in the meantime, mark your calendars!
Find out more at http://wherewereyoufest.blogspot.sg/
Yes, my dear fellow superhero movie geeks, the next six years are going to crazy! In the last couple of weeks both DC and Marvel have announced their schedule of movies covering 2015 to 2020 and together with superhero movies from Fox and SONY promises to bring down upon our heads the great superhero movie glut of the 21st century.
Continue reading “GEEK OUT: THE SUPERHERO MOVIE GLUT IS UPON US”
What I liked about Khairul Ridzwan was that he had the balls to approach me at Artistry and asked whether he could play! So let’s find out more about him, shall we and make sure you come down to check out his original music.
Khairul Ridzwan is an aspiring artist born in Singapore. He started playing the acoustic guitar since the age of 14 and eventually progressed to singing a few years later, Khairul has written and performed several original and cover songs. Occasionally, you can find him busking during weekend nights along the streets of Singapore or playing in local cafes. Currently studying Diploma in Music and Audio Technology in Singapore Polytechnic, Khairul aspires to be an original singer and songwriter, evoking feelings from his stories to touch his listeners.
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Popular singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran‘s concert in Singapore was sold out in 8 hours, we are told. That’s 5,000 plus tickets! Impressive numbers indeed. Considering the prices of those tickets, that simply demonstrates the buying power of young people here for a premium international entertainer.
Does this mean that the demand in the Singapore concert scene is still very strong? Or is this kind of fan fervor reserved for hot ticket items like Sheeran? Time will tell. If you didn’t get a ticket, you will have to make do with a video, for the time being.
Next up in STAGEFRIGHT XV @ Artistry — Yap Wei Chiang!
Wei Chiang is currently an aspiring singer-songwriter and college student. Whenever he’s not busy studying, trying to get to lectures on time, playing Ultimate Frisbee or Dota 2, he spends his time ruminating on life, love and what it means to live growing up in Singapore. Writing since 15, most of these personal experiences find their way into his songs; songs which he hopes are honest and relate!
Artistry Cafe is located at 17 Jalan Pinang. RSVP at Facebook.
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The fifteenth edition of Artistry’s curated original music showcase takes place on 12th November from 8pm. Power of Pop will highlight the six artists/bands who will be featured. First up, Eliah Leong.
Eliah Leong is a 23 year-old Chinese-Philippino, who was born and bred in Singapore, and speaks proper Singlish. Eliah started singing when he was 7, picked up the guitar when he was 15, and wrote his first proper song when he was 18. Eliah has written about 10 songs ever since, and his vocal style is evolving continuously as he discovers and learns to sing new songs. He enjoys a wide variety of musical genres.
Artistry Cafe is located at 17 Jalan Pinang. RSVP at Facebook.
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It’s easy to get a lil cynical about Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters‘ marketing their upcoming new album Sonic Highways by way of a eight-part documentary series on HBO. But the cynicism will evaporate when one watches the first episode as Grohl and co record in Chicago and proceeds to pay tribute to the Chicago musicians who made a difference – from Buddy Guy to Cheap Trick to Steve Albini to Naked Raygun. This is done with a love, respect and fervour that demonstrates once again that Grohl has his heart and soul in the right place – he’s one of us…
Check out the complex yet visceral opening track from Sonic Highways, “Something From Nothing”….
Alright, so technically October ain’t over yet but seeing as how much we love to jump the gun – here’s a mixtape/playlist of new music PoP discovered this month. Don’t forget to submit your favourite tracks of 2014 via Spotify playlist to info AT powerofpop DOT com by the end of November, if you want to win them Spotify Premium Accounts (for six months). In the meantime, enjoy…
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Singer-songwriter Joie Tan, with her debut single “Stay”, wants the romantic feelings expressed therein to be shared with like-minded listeners. Inspired by her own personal emotions regarding her real life boyfriend, “Stay” is a simple plea in song from a girl to a guy who she wishes will stick around. Check out the heartfelt music video below (with its When Harry Met Sally vibe).
Purchase “Stay” from iTunes.
The kind folks at Spotify Singapore have provided POWER OF POP with our very own branded Spotify account which you can access at http://open.spotify.com/user/powerofpopsg. To celebrate this, we are giving away premium accounts – courtesy of Spotify Singapore – to the 3 best playlists of your favourite tracks from this year!
All you need to do is to submit ONE playlist of 12 of your favourite 2014 tracks to info AT powerofpop DOT com before the end of November and we will select THREE playlists we dig and the creators of them playlists will each receive a Spotify premium account for their listening pleasure. Yes, it is easy as that!
So check out a sample playlist of 12 of our favourite tracks from 2014 and get cracking!
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May 1st, 2015. Nuff said!
10 songs in 18 minutes – this is a playlist that lives up to its name! Drawn from the early days of hardcore punk – as young North Americans inspired by the Punk & New Wave of Heavy Metal explosions in the UK in the late 70s, began to express themselves in this new and exciting ‘genre’. Yeah, there are probably more fine examples of early hardcore to be found out there but this only takes 18 minutes to listen to, so this will be the quickest rock history lesson ever.
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Yellowcard returns to Singapore on 10th December at The Coliseum, Hard Rock Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa. The band recently released new album – Lift A Sail – with Razor & Tie and this current tour will support the new release. Tickets available from Peatix. More info at Facebook.
Listen to Lift a Sail at Spotify!
Aussie indie pop outfit Fairchild has debuted “Arcadia”, a song off upcoming new EP – Sadako – to be released on November 21st through Canvas Sounds/Believe Digital. The new song is an infectious, hooky dance pop number which indie pop fans will simply lap up. Check it out below.
In bygone days, it was common for superheroes to be placed in life threatening situations with readers being confident that the hero would somehow escape the clutches of death. But that concept was first challenged in X-Men #137 (1980) when Jean Grey (aka Marvel Girl/Phoenix) took her own life in order to protect the universe from the Phoenix force that possessed her. In an unforgettable sequence, Jean Grey paid the ultimate price in order to save the universe.
Continue reading “GEEK OUT! – O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING? THE DEATH OF WOLVERINE”
2014 has been a good year for music, make no mistake about that! And as the year draws to a close (yes really!), it’s time to take stock. Power of Pop will be announcing soon a tie-up with the kind folks at Spotify Singapore for you to share with us your favourite 12 tracks for 2014. Stay tuned for the details to come your way very soon. In the meantime, here’s a playlist of 12 tracks that made the Power of Pop alive again this year! Enjoy!
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GONE GIRL
Directed by David Fincher.
Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris & Tyler Perry
When you are watching a movie, you want to like it – after all, you are spending time and money to watch the movie so… wouldn’t you want to like it? I find that increasingly, the more visual eye candy the movie throws my way, the more amenable I am to accept the story flaws that inevitably crop up. But in the case of Gone Girl – director David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best selling novel, there are no special effects to distract from the plotline and thus, one would think that it would be easier to determine how successful the story-telling was.
Was fortunate to spend a fair bit of last night soaking in local artworks that were inspired by pop & rock music at the Singled Out exhibition at tcc – The Connoisseur Concerto ‘The Gallery’ at 51 Circular Road. Basically, the artists used vinyl records as a starting point, mixed that with other media to create something new. The artworks will be up for auction where all proceeds will be managed by Thunder Rock School, though a music education outreach program specifically catered to financially disadvantaged children. The exhibition will be open till 6th Jan 2015.
I was impressed by the concepts and execution, by and large. Also, I was hooked by how well the ideas connected with the inspiration. In addition, I was intrigued that many of the artists were also musicians in their own right and that spiced things up for me. Check out my top 10 favorites below.
Disintegration by Andy Yang.
Mary-Christ by Ginette Chittick
Continue reading “SINGLED OUT: ART & MUSIC FOR A GOOD CAUSE”
Taken off Facebook.
It is with outmost regret that we are announcing the cancellation of the Hostess Club Weekender Singapore.
Due to the second day Tokyo headline artist falling through at visa deadline time, and another artist on that program being unable to secure visa approval, the Tokyo Hostess Club Weekender has had to be very reluctantly canceled.
Given the Tokyo Weekender is the anchor event of the Hostess Club circuit, which also helps fund the entire Asia outing, this meant the tour itself has come to be untenable.
We would like to offer our sincere apologies to fans who have bought tickets to the show – every effort has been made to find a solution to retain the regional shows without Tokyo, however a combination of political unrest and sponsor withdrawals in the region as well as just moderate ticket sales in Singapore ultimately made this unrealistic to pursue.
We are working closely with our ticketing agent eventClique to ensure all ticket holders are refunded swiftly. For enquiries regarding this please contact:-
Email: askeve@eventclique.com
Tel: +65 6602 9900
Sincerely,
Forefront Asia & Ynos Inc
This is the second Hostess Club Weekender in a row that has been cancelled. It’s going to take something very extra-special if the event is going to regain the confidence of concert-goers.
There’s quite a fair bit of country music out there that’s popular but sadly, it’s mostly Top 40 mainstream pop fare that never challenges the mind and instead panders to the lowest common denominator. For something more cutting edge in the country music sphere, we need to continue to look at Alt-Country. Thankfully, that aspect of country music is still thriving (creatively, if not commercially) and one prime example can be found in Sleeping Operator, the sophomore effort from the Montreal-based Barr Brothers (viz. Brad Barr, Andrew Barr, Sarah Page, Andres Vial).
It’s always a wondrous experience when an artistically-minded band blends country with rock ‘n’ roll to produce soulful music that leaves the listener satisfied. To these ears, songs like “Wolves”, “Even the Darkness Has Arms” and “Half Crazy” recalls the likes of Steve Earle, The Jayhawks and even early WILCO – a wonderful evocation of Gram Parsons’ Cosmic American Music. The melodies glide effortlessly and the exotic instrumentation complements the same perfectly to send sympathetic listeners into country-folk-pop-rock bliss!
Official Site
Thanks to Nick Whitcomb for the recommendation!