BACK TO THE EGG

Keane returns with their fourth effort, Strangeland, after three albums and an EP. Best known for the hits “Everybody’s Changing” and “Somewhere Only We Know” from their debut album Hopes and Fears, they produced a third album that heavily drew on their 80s influences. Strangeland, on the other hand, is a return to their piano rock roots and is an enjoyable listen but still lacks the staying power of their first two albums.

The entire album sounds much more cohesive than Perfect Symmetry, having an overall brightening mood as compared to the darker undertones of the first two albums. Unfortunately it falls a little flat as not many of the tracks on the album are memorable and can be considered as merely inoffensive pop with semi-catchy melodies. But there are a few gems on the album such as “You Are Young”, which is a perfect opener for the album and start to the day. The chorus “of all the things you don’t know/ you’ve got time to realise you’re shielded by the hands of love/ cos’ you are young” and a great sing-along “oh-oh-oh” refrain a la Coldplay sets a cheery tone for the album. Second track “Silenced By The Night” is the first single of the album and also has the same uplifting mood, continuing in the same vein, being a great love song yet having the same wisp of yearning and melancholy that characterises their music.

Other catchy tunes with great hooks on the album include “Disconnected”, the second single off the album and “Sovereign Light Café”. A personal favourite is “The Starting Line”, expressing the despair (“this town was a lovers stage/ but now you can’t recognise/ the streetlights that are daggers to your eyes/ you can’t find your bearings/ your slipping into the ground/ the scene has no colour and no sound”) that follows distrust and renewed hope and determination. The album is definitely for fans and non-fans alike, and is a triumphant return to form.

(Melissa Ng)

Check out a special Amazon Live Q&A / Performance webcast here.

Friendly Fires | 16 March 2012 | Avalon

Fans of indie band Friendly Fires were treated to an energetic and highly enjoyable set at the band’s performance in Singapore last Friday. Having released two albums, the band commanded a much larger fanbase than their last performance in Singapore supporting Faithless. Ed, Edd, Jack and their live band certainly showed their appreciation for the crowd as they provided non-stop entertainment for the audience for ninety minutes, especially with Ed’s manic dancing.

Greeted by familiar indie tunes at the beginning of the night (spun by Home Club BEAT! resident Ginette Chittick), the crowd made up of young adults filled up the dancefloor at Avalon, cheering as Ginette played songs by The Cure, The Smiths, Franz Ferdinand and such. But the crowd had clearly conserved their energy for the performance, as the band took their places on the cramped stage and sent the crowd into a wave of dancing as they launched into “Lovesick”. Singing along to every word, audience members altogether moved to the beat, encouraged by Ed’s hip-shaking.

As with many other bands, the first album from Friendly Fires was clearly more popular among their fans in Singapore, apparent when the band started on “Running Away” and “Blue Cassette” and many paused to take a breather. But they were soon sent into a frenzy when Ed jumped into the audience and danced his way through the entire crowd on the dancefloor, all the while singing “True Love”.

Performing most of the tracks from their two albums, it was a night of euphoric dancing, especially so when they seemingly ended the night with “Paris”, their biggest hit. “Every night, we’ll watch the stars, they’ll be out for us, and every night the city lights, they’ll be out for us” – never seemed so apt set against the backdrop of the city skyline with the crowd jumping, arms raised to the sky and singing every word.

The band proceeded to leave the stage, and yet – there was more. The band ran back on stage within minutes, dripping with sweat while launching into “Hawaiian Air”. Their encore of “Hawaiian Air” and “Kiss of Life” would have easily impressed anyone, let alone a roomful of their fans. Performing an extended version of “Kiss of Life” with the help of their extensive percussion section of their live band, they ended the night on a high. Overall, their live performance was highly enjoyable with the infectious energy of the band, but was marred by the venue’s sub-par sound system, as Ed’s vocals could barely be heard throughout their set, drowning in the sound from the bass and drums.

(Melissa Ng)

Photos courtesy of Dominic Phua and Ryan Peters/ Untitled Entertainment. Thanks to April Lam for making this review possible. 

The People’s Party - 15 January 2012 | *SCAPE Warehouse

After the success of bringing in MGMT, French Horn Rebellion and Hurts last year, Untitled Entertainment expanded The People’s Party tour to Singapore, bringing in acts such as Metronomy, The Jezabels, The Naked and Famous and Bombay Bicycle Club. The line-up for the second day of the mini-festival held at *SCAPE featured MUON (SG), Noughts & Exes (HK), Analog Girl (SG), Unknown Mortal Orchestra (US/NZ), In Each Hand A Cutlass (SG), The Naked & Famous (NZ) and Bombay Bicycle Club (UK).

MUON opened the festival right on schedule, playing to a crowd of about hundred people, which slowly expanded as people trickled in on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Their set was overall disappointing, as they sounded unprepared for their performance. Their first attempt to perform their new track Failure of Plan B ended in a mess, which Nick (programming/bass) somewhat saved with an awkward joke about “the failure of the intro”. At a point in their set, a few sound samples were played and quickly cut, as if the band was indecisive or unrehearsed. To their credit, the rest of their set was wonderfully intense, but unfortunately the crowd had not fully warmed up to the ambient soundscapes created by the band.

Noughts & Exes’s performance that day was their third one in Singapore (last being Baybeats ’11), and received an overwhelming positive response from the crowd. Playing tracks from their albums The Start of Us and Act One Scene One, the band soared through songs such as The Crime and Everything. Their set was heartfelt and honest, especially Joshua’s vocal performance. Their set became an intimate affair as he the strain of his vocals revealed him laying bare his feelings through the songs, and the interaction with the audience felt sincere. The rest of the band was also lost in the music when they played, showing their utter commitment and faith in the music they were making. However, the actions of the backup vocalist marred their set. Her vocals were very suited to the songs and matched Joshua’s vocals, but her hand actions and dancing felt extremely forced and awkward, as compared to the natural movement and charisma of the other musicians on stage. The placing of the drumset could also have been improved, but perhaps due to logistics, the drummer was very far upstage, so much that he was visually unnoticeable. As a whole their set was a real treat for those present at the time, as they also played a new track that they had not played anywhere else yet.

Following Noughts & Exes’s indie-folk set was The Analog Girl’s brand of electro-rock. Her set was an impressive visual and aural experience, with her use of a Tenori-On and AudioCubes. The lighting design during her set was also particularly noticeable, as it created a strong and dark atmosphere for her creation of soundscapes. Her vocals contributed to the impressive live experience as they were not the sole focus of her music, but added an element of the dreamy and ethereal to her music.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra (UMO) also made their Asian debut at the festival, immediately making an impression on everyone in their tribal-ethnic clothing, prompting an audience member to shout “nice shirt!” Surprisingly, the band already has a fanbase here, clear from the roar that went up in the crowd as they arrived onstage. Playing tracks from their self-titled debut album such as Bicycle, Jello and Juggernauts and Boy Witch, they had everyone in the crowd grooving and jumping to their lo-fi psychedelic rock. Their brand of guitar rock was definitely a breath of fresh air in the festival after much electronic music. The band members, Ruban Nielson (vox, guitar), Jake Portrait (bass) and Julien Ehrlich (drums) also communicated well with each other, continually maintaining eye contact with each other throughout their set. The band also thoroughly impressed the crowd with Ruban’s shredding on his guitar and Julian’s relentless and precise drumming. Their performance ended on a high as the audience were very pumped up and sang along for their biggest hit, Ffuny Ffrends.

Next up was In Each Hand A Cutlass, who only released their debut album late last year and brought the intensity to the festival. In Daniel Sassoon’s words, they are “from Singapore and we (they) represent”! Their brand of post-rock was the heaviest music heard that day, with tracks such as A Universe Made of Strings and Chocolate and the Lovelorn Girl, verging on metal. Unfortunately the crowd noticeably thinned after UMO had left the stage. But Daniel Sassoon was certainly the most dynamic musician performing that day, with his jumps and twirls, and even sliding on the floor with his guitar. The crowd was receptive to the band, but they definitely did not enjoy their performance as much as the others, as audience members were overheard saying the music was too heavy for their liking. Nelson Tan’s imitation of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean certainly drew many comments and much (good) attention.

The crowd swelled up to the warehouse’s full capacity in anticipation for The Naked And Famous, whom the crowd went wild for throughout their set. It seemed as though a majority of the crowd was there for The Naked And Famous rather than Bombay Bicycle Club, with their catchy indie-pop tunes. All eyes were on Alisa Xayalith during their set as she lost herself in the songs and led the sing-alongs to their famous tunes Punching In A Dream and Girls Like You and of course, Young Blood. Though most present thoroughly enjoyed their set, it felt a little stale to this reviewer as the organisers could easily have just done a playback of The Naked And Famous songs, as the band didn’t attempt to change any of the songs and they sounded as if they were entirely played off a recording, which at the same time also attests to their musical skills. There was also little attempt to engage the audience, as the band chose to simply perform their songs instead of bantering.

The last band of the night was Bombay Bicycle Club, which Power of Pop also interviewed earlier that day! General opinion among the crowd was that Bombay Bicycle Club’s set was better than The Naked And Famous, perhaps because of their engagement with the crowd. All the band members besides Suren (drummer) repeatedly made an effort to come closer to the audience and play to them, especially Jamie (guitar). It was a special night not only for fans of the band present, but also Jack (singer) as it was his birthday, and Jamie led a massive sing-along for Jack, who added that he was glad to celebrate his birthday playing in Singapore. The crowd lapped up every moment of the hour-long set, as they played songs from three albums, but especially their first, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose. The audience also expectedly chanted for an encore following the band’s departure from the stage. Combined with the strobe lighting used and the band’s infectious and obvious love for performing their music, their set was an enjoyable and special experience for everyone there.

Much thanks to Untitled Entertainment and props to them for improving the overall sound quality of the venue those two days and for making the festival an intimate and enjoyable experience.

(Melissa Ng)

Bombay Bicycle Club Interview - 15 January 2012

Indie-folk rockers Bombay Bicycle Club were in town a few days ago for The People’s Party festival, presented by Untitled Entertainment. I caught up with Ed (bass, left) and Suren (drums, right) with other media at the swanky (more like sweltering) Ku De Ta on a Sunday afternoon at Marina Bay Sands.

Touring Asia for the first time and being in Singapore, what has it been like?

Suren: It’s been very nice but to be honest, we haven’t seen much since we just got here yesterday. We haven’t seen much apart from the hotel, which is pretty mindblowing.

Ed: We can see a lot of it, and after this we’ll walk around before the show.

You have quite a solid fanbase in the UK, but were you surprised by the response in Asia?

Ed: Obviously we had some idea from Facebook that people wanted to see us here. It’s always surprising that on the other side of the world, people are singing back to you. I don’t think I ever really predicted that, and it’s really a big shot.

Watching your Shuffle video, it seems you guys really have a lot of fun on tour. Were you up to any crazy antics in Tokyo or even here?

Ed: I’m not sure if it counts as crazy, but we had some time off after show in Japan, and we were going sightseeing. We thought if we come this far away from home, we might as well try to experience as much as we can, so we always tried to see the city. The Shuffle video is basically us walking around Amsterdam and Berlin partying and stuff, just us trying to make the most of being in a cool place.

What are your plans immediately following this tour?

Ed: Immediately we’re spending a week in Tokyo, in fact we might go from Tokyo to Russia then to Kyoto.

Suren: Then we go home, and have an American tour coming up, so we’ll start getting ready for that. This is the first time we’re doing an intensive tour, since we haven’t done that much touring. We’ll see how it goes, we might end up killing each other!

Since you have been touring non-stop intensively, how do you cope with that? Are you guys on the verge of going insane?

Suren: Yeah I think we’re going insane!

Ed: We just try to take the most from every place we go to, I think that really helps because it gets you away from hanging in the band because we get to see new cool stuff and that helps a lot. Exercise is also a good, like swimming.

What is your favourite memory of the tour so far?

Ed: I would say being up here is pretty mindblowing, you can see the whole of Singapore from here. It’s one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed in my life. I think this is the coolest thing on the tour so far.

Suren: Indeed.

Did you have any idea that you would become this big or did you have any big dreams?

Ed: I never really thought about it, we were just four people at school!

Suren: It sounds really cliché but we just “go with the flow” and even now I don’t think we dream of being a massive band. We just see what happens and are just having fun, really.

You guys began your music career at 15, so how did you juggle school and music?

Suren: It was kind of tough at times, but to be honest the band took a backseat while we were at school. It was just something we did for fun in our spare time. We made a decision that we wanted to finish our school education and work as hard as we could.

Ed: It worked out really well because we could build the band really slowly, play gigs on the weekends and tour when we had time off from school. We could get the band to the point where we wanted it to be without it being really big and having people look at us.

Were you guys the rock stars of the school?

Suren: There were actually quite a few bands at our school, there was another band in our year called Cage And Dance Party, and they’ve since split up. They were much bigger than us while we were at school and took a different approach. They went for it quite quickly. They didn’t have the time to build up but tried to get as big as they could while they were at school. They even signed a record deal while we were at school, whereas we wanted to wait.

Ed: And we can see which one is better now!

Suren: There was also another guy at our school who is now writing songs for Mika I think? He seems to be doing pretty well for himself. I don’t know how there were so many bands from the same school.

You guys have released an album every year since 2009, so what are your plans for this year?

Ed: I don’t think we’re going to do another album, but I think we might need a little time off. For the first two albums, we didn’t tour as much as other bands would. As soon as we finished one, we were straight onto making the next one, which is why we haven’t been out here.

For the new album, Jim Abbiss was the producer, who also produced your debut album with Ben Allen and your frontman Jack. What was the dynamic between the three producers? Is there a reason why Ben was chosen?

Suren: Basically we worked with Ben on the more electronic sample-based songs, and we thought he would produce them pretty well. We did worry whether the album would end up coherent, since it was produced by three sets of producers, but we did get them mixed by the same guy, who tied the album together quite nicely.

Ed: I’m a huge fan of Ben Allen, and he produced some of my favourite records last year, three of them actually. He’s a very prolific guy.

How is it like to have a change in your music direction on the second album and then back to electronic music on the third?

Suren: It was always our intention to go back to that electronic sound for the next album, and the second album was kind of a little diversion. We just wanted to put it out for our own pleasure really, and our label back home wasn’t sure about releasing it, but it blew up into a thing we didn’t expect and managed to get into the Top 10 in the UK, which was very unexpected. It took on a life of its own.

How long did you take to record A Different Kind of Fix? Was it a smooth process and can we see any B-sides from the album?

Ed: We only did one B-side in the album recordings. We literally had the songs we wanted to put in the album, and dropped one off that has already been released. So we’ll have to record some more, because we have more songs that we didn’t record that we would like to do. It took just under a year to record the album, and we started in September 2010. It was bitty, as we would do a little bit of recording and Jack would have some time to write more songs, then we would book some more time and record some more songs. Since we had different producers like Ben Allen, we only had blocks of time. It was kind of three recording sessions over a period of six months.

You guys have played many festivals, and are even playing one in Singapore. Do you prefer playing at festivals or having your own concert?

Ed: I prefer playing our own concerts, but festivals do have their charm as well. We’ve done many festivals in the UK, and it’s completely different. You play to a lot more people, and the people in the crowd may not necessarily know who you are. They’re kind of passing by or have been recommended your music and you have to work very hard to win over the crowd, whereas at your own show they’re there to see you and they know what to expect. But we get to play with really cool bands and that’s always lovely. On this trip, we’re playing with Metronomy and The Naked And Famous, and that’s always amazing. That’s my favourite part of festivals.

How did your song end up being featured in the Twilight movies? It’s also one of the songs written earlier, is there any reason why it didn’t end up being the lead single of an album?

Ed: We had it a long time ago, and I guess we just submitted it or someone submitted it for the Twilight soundtrack. The soundtrack stands apart from the movie; even Thom Yorke has a song on it. The version on Twilight is actually the demo version recorded in Jack’s room, not the album version. We always knew it would be the lead single on the album, before Twilight. That was always the intention before Twilight. Suren actually went to watch Twilight, and the song was in the background for a few seconds.

Suren: I actually took my whole family to watch Twilight on a big trip, and it was a letdown, because the film wasn’t very good and you couldn’t really hear our song at all, so it was disappointing.

Lucy Rose has been part of your album and the live line-up, are there plans to include her in the future in any of your albums?

Ed: She’s been on tour with us for a while, but she’s not here in Singapore. She’s recording her own solo album, which means she might be around less because obviously she’s going to concentrate on that. But we’ll have her when she’s free!

Looking back since you guys started, would you say your sound now is really representative of who Bombay Bicycle Club is?

Suren: I don’t know if we really know what Bombay Bicycle Club is, since all our albums have been very different from each other. We just made music that felt right at the time, simple as that. So this album best represents us now.

(Melissa Ng)

Much thanks to Sarah and Alan from Universal Music!

We Sink

Icelandic artist Sóley releases her debut solo album, We Sink, which is in the vein of artists such as Joanna Newsom and El Perro del Mar. The album, being honest, raw and lilting, establishes Sóley as an individual artist, having been in the bands Sin Fang and Seabear for many years. Her songs are certainly not to emphasise her singing voice, but the unusual yet captivating melodies and arrangement of her songs.

First single and track of the album I’ll Drown is a beautifully crafted piece, where percussion defines and appropriate pauses lure the listener in to the rest of the album. Despite the album being acoustic-folk, the use of multiple instruments and Sóley’s unique vocals sets her music apart from the usual (sometimes boring) fare offered by acoustic artists. Each track on the album is unique enough to be a single, but they are also altogether cohesive and form an album that is enchanting and creepy enough, to be the background music of an abandoned circus scene in a movie. Given the current popularity of many indie female artists, Sóley has the potential to be one of the most popular indie/folk artists around, given more publicity and marketing.

(Melissa Ng)

Official Site

Good Charlotte 18 November 2011 The Coliseum at Hard Rock Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa

Good Charlotte was in town for their second concert in Singapore on Friday night, held at The Coliseum in Resorts World Sentosa’s Hard Rock Hotel. Support act Urbandub opened with an excellent set and the night was enjoyable overall, apart from the terrible sound quality. The moshing was rough and unsuccessful crowd-surfers plentiful, while VIPs hobnobbed at the back of the venue, with Jack flowing and platters of foods being served to them. There was a great contrast between the VIPs and main audience, and the setup of the entire event could definitely have been arranged in a less jarring manner.

Urbandub opened the concert earlier than the slated time (8pm), and pumped the crowd up with songs such as First of Summer and A Call To Arms. The crowd was surprisingly open with their reception of the Filipino band, perhaps due to encouragement from the roaring and enthusiastic Filipino fans present. But singer Gabby’s repeated calls to sing along fell flat, since most were unfamiliar with their material. Nevertheless, the band put on a performance that had some of the crowd rocking along and certainly set the mood for Good Charlotte’s arrival onstage.

The filler segment in between the sets sent the audience into a frenzy, as freebies such as merchandise from Radio 91.3 and event posters were thrown into the crowd. The squeezing and pushing at this point were only a tiny indicator of what was to come later with the arrival of Good Charlotte. Weezer’s Blue Album played before the arrival of the band, since Good Charlotte had just performed the album in full in Australia.

The five-piece band from Maryland, USA, then took their places onstage promptly 15 minutes later, to screams and a mad rush of pushing among the predictably black-clad crowd. Walking onstage to Introduction to Cardiology, the band quickly jumped into The Anthem and a slew of songs from their second album, The Young and Hopeless. The audience euphorically sang along and everyone present was covered in sweat within two songs. The band seemed to recognise that their older material were more popular with Southeast Asian audiences, as songs from their second album made up half their set. Despite their first album being more obscure in the worldwide context, the crowd never missed a beat as they shouted out the words to Little Things, The Motivation Proclamation and Festival Song.

Madden twins Joel and Benji interacted most with the crowd throughout the concert, repeatedly asking the audience what they wanted to hear, while guitarist Billy Martin jammed, sprung and jumped around the stage. Drummer Dean Butterworth (who joined the band in 2007) and bassist Paul Thomas chose to stay in the background for the entire performance. They performed popular hits such as Dance Floor Anthem, The River, Like It’s Her Birthday and more from their 2010 effort, Cardiology, but it was peculiar that they left out many tracks from their third album, The Chronicles of Life and Death. As Joel sang the opening words to We Believe to test the crowd, the audience collectively sang out the rest of the line for him, leading him to comment that audiences in no other country besides Argentina and Singapore knew the words to that song. Though Benji had commented in interviews that the Chronicles record was selfish and did not do as well commercially, they did oblige the audience’s want to hear more songs from that record by launching into I Just Wanna Live.

Making comments such as “I’m not telling you what music to like and I’m not talking about anyone”, and “like what you like and stick to your guns”, Joel and the rest of the band could do no wrong with the crowd full of hardcore fans. Ending their set abruptly with their breakthrough hit Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, they left the crowd chanting “we want more!” After coming back with an encore of a mashup of The Story Of My Old Man and Blink 182’s Dammit, they left the stage and fans eagerly climbed over the barriers for guitar picks, towels, setlists and everything else they could grab before security came and shooed them away. As the crowd left the venue bruised and battered, there was a sense of satisfaction among most of the crowd with what they had witnessed, and stealing food from the VIP tables surely added to that immense pleasure.

(Melissa Ng)

Westlife | 3 October 2011 | Singapore Indoor Stadium

A screaming crowd greeted Westlife at the Indoor Stadium on Monday night as the boyband made its dramatic appearance on stage. With their 90-minute performance in Singapore, the four lads proved their staying power with their vocal ability and capability to sell out half the stadium (a feat that even Slash couldn’t accomplish earlier this year).

The demographics of their audience in Singapore (and probably around the world too) seem to change every time they perfom here, as hardly anyone below the age of 20 was present on Monday night at the boyband’s fourth performance here, and many seniors were seen in the crowd (and even the ratio of men to women was nearly 1:1!). This was clearly a sign that times have changed, a fact that the band acknowledged, as they asked the audience “who used to listen to us in high school? Man, that makes us feel old!”

Despite this tour being named “The Gravity Tour”, the lads of Westlife performed mainly their older and bigger hits, opening with When You’re Looking Like That, and singing hits such as My Love, World Of Our Own and What Makes A Man. With four costume changes throughout their performance and four of them taking turns to speak to the audience, Mark, Shane, Kian and Nicky were able to continually entertain the crowd. They seemed like they could do no wrong with this audience, as fans cheered and sang along to every song. Even non-fans cannot deny that the lads can sing, with as Shane had pitch-perfect singing and Mark thrilled the crowd with his vocal flair.

However, their performance was also lacking as their set consisted of too many covers, such as Home, What About Now, Seasons In The Sun, Uptown Girl and You Raise Me Up. It is a pity that they often do not perform some of their popular originals, such as Amazing and Us Against the World, which leads to them being labeled as a “cover band”. The medley of covers (Viva La Vida, Only Girl, The Time, Bad Romance) in the middle of their set was also just bizarre and totally cringe-worthy. Many also commented that Westlife did not perform arguably their biggest hit, Swear It Again. Overall, the entire concert came off as a well-rehearsed routine rather than a fresh and exciting performance, unsurprising since they have been on this tour since April.

But while they did perform songs from their newest album, Gravity (released in 2010), such as Safe, Beautiful Tonight and I Will Reach You, songs from their other recent albums were avoided. The only other more recent songs they performed were What About Now, Home and I’m Already There. Noticeably, they avoided performing songs from the albums that Simon Cowell had pushed them to release, namely, the Turnaround, Allow Us To Be Frank and Love albums. Perhaps it was due to them leaving his label on bad terms earlier this year? We can only speculate.

This concert was also a testament to the evolution of Westlife, as they chose to focus on the singing this time instead of the pelvic thrusting at their previous concert. Even their dance routines were limited, with them only busting out the cheesy boyband moves at the end of the concert with Uptown Girl. Their performance this time also felt more down-to-earth, as the band attempted to engage fans much more, bringing some of them on stage, and also acknowledging that without all the fans, “we (they) would be nothing”. They even mentioned that their cover of You Raise Me Up from their Face to Face album is “probably the only reason why we’re (they’re) still around”. Say what you will about boybands, but while Take That and Boyzone broke up and reunited again, these four lads have been soldiering on for 13 years, released 11 albums and have sold over 40 million records.

(Melissa Ng)

Two Door Cinema Club | 11 August 2011 | Esplanade Concert Hall

Two Door Cinema Club played to a sold-out crowd at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Thursday night, with Cheating Sons opening for them. Even before the concert started, the merch booth was totally swamped with fans buying copies of the band’s debut album, Tourist History, unsurprising since most would have heard their music through illegal downloading!

Cheating Sons kicked off the night with the first track off their debut album (Masters, Wives, Daughter), Isles. It was such a pleasant surprise to hear plenty of cheers and applause for the local band. The warm reception set the tone for the rest of the band’s 30-minute set, where they played songs such as The Kids Ain’t Right, Amber Lights and Mr. Green. The crowd responded enthusiastically to frontman Renyi’s banter, which definitely contributed to the band’s palpable joy in playing that night (Cheez, Don and Andy Yang were positively grooving!), while Don’s constant change of instrument fascinated and thrilled the audience.

When the Sons left the stage, there was a rush of eager fans that flooded the aisles and patiently waited near the front to get a good view, as Two Door Cinema Club came on only half an hour later. The air was electric as the band came onstage, and three rows of people crowded within the first row of seats in the hall (something which I didn’t even know was possible). The crowd went nuts as the band launched into Cigarettes In The Theatre, and followed up with their biggest hit, Undercover Martyn.

The band played every track off their album, and also teased the crowd with new songs such as Hands Off My Cash, Handshake and This Is Moon. The audience lapped up every song in their set, chanting the typical “We want more!” at the end, which gave way to the more specialized chant “uh-oh uh-uh-oh” from the intro of I Can Talk. The band rewarded the crowd with an encore set of three songs, including a new song entitled Sleep Alone. It seems that the band need not worry about their fans, as long as they continue to churn out indie dancefloor anthems.

From This Is The Life to Eat That Up, It’s Good For You, the band showed that they had perfected the art of building a climax in live performance (touring drummer Ben Thompson certainly contributed). The band played their songs exactly off the record with no variation, which was definitely enough to satisfy the crowd, who seemed to be there only to dance and not to witness a unique live performance. Together with the strobe lighting and stage setup, which was clearly intended to make the venue more intimate (well, as intimate as the venue could get), the Esplanade Concert Hall was in short, transformed into a club.

Hunter S. Thompson said that America was raising a generation of dancers (famously inspiring the song Human by The Killers), and evidently from Thursday night, so is Singapore.

A note of thanks to Greenhorn Productions.

(Melissa Ng)

Picture by Sherilyn Lim.

NEON TREES INTERVIEW | 26 July 2011

I met up with Neon Trees when they were in town earlier this week, along with other media. They performed with We Are Scientists on Tuesday night at Fort Canning. The band was extremely sincere and nice to all the fans and media they met, even remembering those who met them at MTV World Stage Malaysia as well.

It’s your first time in Singapore, so what have you guys been doing since you arrived?

Tyler: We’ve went to Newton Hawker Centre, and had good food!

Branden: The grilled stingray was really good!

You’ve toured Southeast Asia and other regions, what’s the difference between touring in Europe and here?

Tyler: There are distinct differences. People in Asia seem to be a lot more forward thinking than in the UK and Europe, and we feel like we’ve been embraced here. The fans  and shows here are more energetic. We’ve had to work for that a little more in Europe and we’re still building our fanbase there.

Elaine: We also feel more at home here.

Branden: Can we move here?

Among all the countries you’ve not toured, which do you want to tour in the most?

Tyler: I’m really excited to go to Japan, especially since I was an exchange student there in high school. I’ve always wanted to go back, since I’m in a band now and we get to play to fans of our band there.

Elaine: I’m excited to go to China! We didn’t know we were going to China until the last minute before we left, and I have no idea what to expect.

Chris: We’ve gotten to go to so many places we’ve wanted to go to, we’ve hit so many of them now. But a place that I would want to go that we haven’t been yet is Italy.

Branden: I would like to play in Mexico or Brazil, like in Rio. They have really big concerts there!

Chris: Actually, we want to play everywhere!

Are there any festivals you want to play at or attend?

Tyler: We grew up in Southern California going to Coachella, so when we played it, it was a really cool moment for us. We felt like we made it. We also did a lot of UK and European festivals.

Branden: It would be amazing to play Glastonbury.

Tyler: Yeah, we’ve become fans of festival shows, because there’s such a big audience and you get a variety of fans there.

Elaine: I wanna do Rock am Ring in Germany.

You said you had a great time playing Coachella, what’s another crazy thing that has happened in the past six months?

Tyler: Actually this morning, Branden and I were going to McDonalds to get breakfast, and our song Animal was playing. We walked in and all the people who worked there recognized us and started wanting pictures. It seemed like it was staged like in a movie, but it wasn’t! It was surreal.

Branden: It was a great way to start the day!

Tyler: It’s cool to get recognized, but to have your song playing at the same time? Especially on the opposite side of the world! I also shattered my front teeth in Holland when I fell off the stage, and it was quite scary because it was my first time getting injured from playing.

Branden: We also kicked off our tour in Oakland, and Mike Dirnt from Green Day came to wish us luck and brought us a guitar that they had been using in the studio for the new record. He told us he was playing it and thought about us, and thought we should have it. It was a real honour to be in that company. It’s nice to get a pat on the back from someone who’s been around for a while.

After opening for so many bands, which has been the most memorable for you?

Tyler: My personal favourite was My Chemical Romance. They’re the real deal, they’re a rock band, they’re very theatrical and artistic, yet mainstream and pop at the same time and they’ve done it with integrity. They have a wonderful fan base and to play before them for forty minutes every night for a month and a half was really great.

What is the most rewarding and challenging thing about being in the spotlight?

Tyler: I think we’re really sarcastic people but being in the public eye now, like o twitter or Facebook, I feel like we can’t be as playful because people might take it the wrong way. I think we have to be a little more careful in what we say, which is difficult.

Elaine: I think rewarding, is having so many people see us live. As we’ve gotten more successful, more people come to shows. It’s the reason why we play and make music. The exchange between the audience and us is really rewarding for me.

Chris: Before we were in the spotlight, we had to book our own shows. We had a booking agent, and it is such a relief to know that we don’t have to do that anymore. Now we can pretty much play anywhere we want to.

Elaine: And to have more than ten people come to our shows!

Chris: I like that we don’t have to pass out flyers anymore!

You guys are Mormons, yet you are in a rock band. Do you have to explain that to people a lot?

Tyler: Not as much as we expected. I thought it would come up a lot more when we were first getting into this, but it hasn’t. As much as we are Mormons, it’s a personal thing and we are at different places in our religion. We are also not here to be a Mormon band and push that religion onto anyone, but a lot of the lyrics come from our spirituality. I can’t help it, I’m an honest songwriter.

Elaine: I think we don’t make apologies for the fact that we are Mormon, but we don’t advertise it either.

Branden: If I go to see U2 play, I don’t care if Bono is Catholic. Sure enough, the background creates the character and the person, but there are a variety of people in the world and we’re glad we can add a piece to that spectrum.

Who are your musical inspirations and style icons?

Tyler: My personal one is Michael Jackson. I was taken with the way he performed and he’s such a talent. I love punk music from the late 70s and early 80s, like the New York Dolls and The Smiths.

Elaine: When I was a kid, the biggest things to me were Led Zeppelin and Depeche Mode.

Branden: I lean towards classic rock, like The Rolling Stones and The Who and Jimi Hendrix. While I play bass, I don’t always have to look to bass players to get influenced. The emotion Jimi Hendrix has when he plays the guitar is inspirational. Fashion-wise, I’m stuck in the past. I love the fashion of the 50s and 60s, like Elvis, Marlon Brando and James Dean.

Chris: For me, its REM and Cyndi Lauper.

You guys did a video for Your Surrender for the Prom movie, what were your prom experiences like?

Tyler: A lot of my friends didn’t like prom, because we were the rebellious freaky drama kids. But I liked an excuse to dress up, and my girlfriend and I were really inspired by Japanese street style. When we arrived at prom, a lot of people wanted to take our pictures. It made us feel like celebrities, even in high school. I encourage kids to go because it makes you feel special, and you don’t always get to feel that way in high school.

Elaine: I chose music over it, actually. I planned on going but my band at the time had a show the same night, so I didn’t go to prom. The band always came first…

Branden: I was late to my own prom, which is very telling. I was off doing mischievous things, and when I arrived, they were chanting my name because I was nominated for prom king, but I totally missed that part. I spent the rest of the night just chilling out. It was pretty boring.

Chris: The thing I most remember about prom is I went with the girl I had a crush on for years, whom I always wanted to go on a date with. I wanted to take her to a really nice place to eat, so I tried to book a table at this place, but they didn’t have any more space. So my mum suggested this other place, and the fact that they had cloth napkins was her selling point. So I brought her there, and it was the Olive Garden.

Elaine: You guys don’t have it here, but it’s a horribly stupid Italian chain of restaurants. It’s like T.G.I.Fridays.

Chris: I don’t think she was too impressed.

If you weren’t in the music industry, what do you see yourselves doing?

Tyler: A few years ago, I discovered a love for cooking. But I think I would still be very unhappy without music.

Elaine: I might be trying to act, but I always wanted to do music. I had interest in a lot of things, but I always chose music. For all four of us, we always picked music.

Branden: I would be doing graphic design. Music is my biggest dream, but I used to cut up magazines and check out the art directors.

Chris: I used to be a massage therapist before the band, and I would probably be doing that on a cruise ship somewhere if I wasn’t in this band.

What can we expect for tonight’s show?

Tyler: People expect a straightforward pop act, but we are a rock band and there’s an element of surprise and theatricality. We try to put in entertainment value, even if we don’t have pyrotechnics and fog.

Your song “Animal” was covered on Glee, how did that come about?

Tyler: We got invited to be a part of it, and we were quite self-deprecating at that point. We thought nobody would like our music, and we were quite wowed by the offer, since Kanye West and Beyonce get covered on that show. Later, we found out Darren Criss is a fan of our band, and he pushed for it and made the rest of the cast pay attention to it. I’ve heard that since then a lot of the cast members have become fans of ours as well.

Your record was labeled as alternative when it first came out, but since being on the airwaves a lot and “Animal” being on Glee, you’ve become labeled as mainstream. What do you think of this label or shift in perspective?

Tyler: I think alternative music can still be mainstream. We’ve always set up to be the band that we want to be, a band that makes people sing and has anthemic songs. I don’t think we were ever afraid of being played on the radio or on a TV show. In fact, it was what we wanted from the beginning, so we never felt like we sold out or changed. If anything, I feel that we’ve become more honest and more comfortable.

Elaine: I love that we have a foot in each world. We love pop, and at the same time we love alternative music.

Chris: We’re definitely not leaving alternative music.

Elaine: We’re happy to be able to straddle that fence.

Branden: There’s too many people trying to keep score on everything, and music is for everybody. Lines are blurred, and we just hope that everyone enjoys it.

How does having a girl in the band change the dynamics on tour? Is there anything the guys have to be conscious about?

Elaine: If there’s anything to be conscious about, I don’t think they are. They’re not typical guys so they’re not jerks, and I’m not a typical girl, so I’m not bothered by a lot of things.

Tyler: We’ve gotten to the point that we are like family, so when we do get into fights or make fun of each other, I think we realized the love behind it and that we care for each other. It used to be stressful when we first got together, but it was never because of the girl.

Chris: We always try to not offend since we’re in close quarters all the time.

Branden: We’re all equally fragile and emotional.

Elaine: I’m not the most emotional, so there isn’t a gender divide, its like a family.

Your album is called “Habits”, so do you have any interesting habits you would like to share?

Elaine: I have a good habit of working out! While these guys went out yesterday, I worked out in my apartment.

Tyler: I drink a lot of diet coke. It’s probably really bad for my bones.

Chris: I eat a lot of sweets.

Branden: Nothing exciting, really. I like to go shopping! My closet cannot hold any more clothes or shoes! Guitars, too. I have about 20 piled up in my basement.

Tyler: I didn’t want to buy anything, and I’ve already bought too much. With the title of the record, it’s more of the habits we have in communicating in a relationship. It’s not so much about drugs, but maybe sex.

Elaine: More of sexuality, but about how we behave when we feel that way.

Branden: I have the habit of having sex with my wife.

Elaine: I don’t think that’s a habit she wants you to break!

(Melissa Ng)

Thanks to Hazel Lua/Universal Music Singapore. Photo by Jeremy Ong

We Are Scientists and Neon Trees | 26 July 2011 | Fort Canning Park

We Are Scientists kicked off the night with a 50-minute set at Fort Canning Park on Tuesday night, and had warm reception throughout their set from the largely hipster crowd. As heard and seen on Twitter, many felt that Neon Trees should have opened for We Are Scientists instead of the other way around. That prevailing opinion resulted in about nearly half the audience being there for We Are Scientists. The WAS fans eagerly shouted out all the lyrics to their songs, such as After Hours and The Great Escape. Keith, Chris and Andy’s experience in touring showed in their casual and quirky conversation with the audience, which had none of the cheesy and typical “We love you Singapore!” and “How are you Singapore?”

The same couldn’t be said for Neon Trees though, as they repeatedly expressed their love for Singapore. But to be fair, their love for Singapore and the region was sincere, as they mentioned in their interview earlier in the day that they felt more at home in this region than in America. They are definitely not without talent, though Tyler’s stage antics were laughable and cheesy for the more experienced concert-goers (and not big fans of Neon Trees). They played for an hour, opening with Your Surrender, and the excited younger fans of the band launched into frenzied jumping and dancing, and lapped up Tyler’s every word throughout their set.

Early in the set, Tyler kicked off his shoes and spent the rest of the set prancing and dancing around the stage, telling horror stories (before Animal), stripping off his jacket and throwing his accessories into the crowd. Some audience members were overheard saying that his stage antics resembled a wrestler’s. But stage antics aside, their music was enjoyed by everyone there, as they played their popular songs, such as Love and Affection and 1983. Though they only have one album, they managed to fill up an hour or so of their set with four of five songs that were not on their album, Habits. The night ended on a high note with Animal, their most popular song that was also featured on Glee. They played an extra ten minutes with an encore of Love Is A Losing Game by Amy Winehouse (RIP) and the first track off their album, Sins Of My Youth. Their concert was all in all, for fans only.

Special thanks to the folks at FIJI Water, LAMC Productions, Alan and Hazel from Universal Music and LeRoy from FoodNewsPR for making the experience extra special!

(Melissa Ng)

Pix by Jeremy Ong

AUSTRA Feel It Break (Domino)

Austra is a three-piece band that formed in 2010 in Toronto, and Feel It Break is their debut album. Fronted by Katie Stelmanis, the band’s main songwriter, the band’s clarity in music direction is evident in this album. Labelled as goth electronica and also shortlisted for the 2011 Polaris Short List (alongside Arcade Fire), the album seemed more intimidating initially than it actually is.

As with many goth-influenced albums, the emphasis in the music is on the vocals. Katie Stelmanis’ vocals are excellent on this record, unsurprising considering her operatic training. Her voice complements the rhythm and beats in the percussion and bizarrely, the electronic effects too. The lyrics likewise are similar to those found in other goth and symphonic-related music, by bands such as Nightwish.

Electronica brings to mind dancefloor fillers, but this album is haunting and cinematic, yet uplifting at times through the background electronic music, such as in The Future. The album is however, not entirely un-danceable. Beat And The Pulse is a great atmospheric song to be heard in a dark (and maybe shady) club. It is also clear that every note and every trill was sung with precision and not without purpose, such as in Lose It and The Beast.

(Melissa Ng)

Official Site

Ignite Music Festival Day 2 @ Republic Polytechnic (2 July 2011)

The crowd numbered around a thousand when I arrived on the second day of Ignite Music Festival. West Grand Boulevard was playing, and the RP Alumni Band featuring Replug, The Sets Band and Tacit Aria had already finished their sets. The second day’s line-up featured bands such as Fatskunks, Plainsunset, and Caracal. Compared to the bands that played on the first day, such as Typewriter and SIXX, the music featured on the second day was intense and REALLY loud.

Every band played well with no glitches, but I felt that the atmosphere was dull and stale. Majority of the audience stood far from the stage, arms folded and seemed disinterested, perhaps impeded by the mud. However, things did pick up prior to and during Caracal’s set. Cheers and applause was heard from the audience when Caracal was preparing to come on stage, and some in front of the stage jumped and headbanged non-stop during their set. The crowd-pleaser of the night was clearly Caracal. As with Baybeats, the more hardcore bands seem to be the acts that attract more crowds and support.

Fatskunks played an enjoyable reggae-ska set, getting some to even start dancing and singing along to the simple choruses. The band tried its hardest to move the thousand-plus strong crowd, but most of the crowd was still unreachable and unmoveable, and the band was starting to tire. Their set probably sums up the atmosphere that day. While the crowd was not lacking in numbers, but spirit and enthusiasm was.

Ignite Music Festival is one of the most successful local music festivals around, some say second only to Baybeats. It is definitely successful in terms of audience numbers and sponsorship, but the motivation of people in attending the festival is questionable. The crowd was largely made up of RP students, probably there only because it was a major school event. But nevertheless, the effort was commendable, considering it was student-run, and it also allowed these bands to play to a new audience. Hopefully, as more of this generation gets exposed to local music through the Internet, events and the radio, it will no longer remain stigmatized.

(Melissa Ng)

COLOURMUSIC My__ Is Pink

My__ Is Pink is the debut album from Colourmusic, a quintet from Oklahoma, who released two EPs previously. They’ve been hyped as “Wayne Coyne’s favourite new album”, which of course raises expectations of this album. It is introduced as a concept album, but ironically, seems to have a lack of it. The album is largely instrumental and seems to have absolutely no organisation and seems to be a jumbled mess of electric guitars, raspy vocals, gospel singers, heavy percussion, distortion, and to refer to their video for Tog, a whole lot of blood and cum (!).

On this record, the band sounds like they tried to cram all their influences and everything they ever experimented with on this record. Tracks like Beard and The Little Death (In Five Parts) are a relentless hailstorm, full of distorted sounds and heavy percussion, while the rest of the album alternates between dreamy soundscapes, remotely resembling post-rock, and rough, raw and lo-fi. Seeing them live would probably instil fear in some of the audience, but tracks like You For Leaving and Yes! are great for soundtracks, having different phases and a mix of vocals, cymbal-heavy drumming and distortion. From this album, the band comes across as indecisive, but also sick (in a good way) and full of musical ideas.

(Melissa Ng)

Official Site

Cheating Sons @ Beer Market (28 May 2011)

Cheating Sons brought their brand of blues and rock ‘n’ roll to Beer Market last Saturday night, as part of the Music Matters Live festival. The pub was filled up but judging from the applause and cheers the band got, only a third of the audience was there to see them. The Jezabels from Australia (interviewed earlier on Power of Pop), who played before the Sons, also had a much larger audience, with many standing just to see the band.

Nevertheless, the quality of the Sons’ set was no less than their best, as they played with energy and seemed to enjoy themselves, though their frontman Renyi appeared a little tired. Their performance was commendable considering it was their second set of the night and the late hour (midnight). Their set was only thirty minutes long, but it was enough to impress most of the audience, including those who were not there for the band. Andy was relentless on the drums and his precision showed why Cheating Sons are one of the best bands around, while the joy of performing was apparent amongst all of them.

The band played songs from their debut album, Masters, Wives, Daughter, such as Mr Green and Ah Long On The Run. Their set got a small group dancing, and part of the crowd that were not there to see the band also began to pay increasing attention to the band throughout their set. But as some might say, “haters gon hate”, and a vocal member of the audience shouted “more A minor”, mocking the band. But they quickly shut the hater up with Isles, and he was overheard saying afterward that “the song was really good”. With this short set, the Sons proved once again why they are the pride and joy of local music.

(Melissa Ng)

Photo by Iskander Abori

ASOBI SEKSU Florescence (Polyvinyl)

Asobi Seksu, one of the most well-known dream-pop and shoegaze outfits around, is back with their sixth offering, remarkable since their popularity has only grown, proving their staying power. Fluorescence offers the same brand of dream-pop which many are probably familiar with, and perhaps that provides a reason for the album feeling average.

The second track, Trails, has an uplifting melody yet despairing lyrics, and the track is fresh despite the lo-fi effects in the track. On this track, Yuki, the vocalist, also proves she was doing the “enigmatic indie-folk frontwoman” thing way before Florence (of Florence + The Machine fame). However, my favourite track on the album is Deep Weird Sleep, which is actually the interlude, but it creates an intense soundscape but at the same time sets the scene for dreaming (with acid). On another note, it would be the perfect soundtrack for contemporary dance or an abstract art installation. Counterglow, Ocean and Pink Light are the few tracks where I find the vocals complementing the instrumental.

Personally I’m not a fan of this album, but there are gems, as is the case with most albums. In most tracks, I found the vocals jarring and too shrill for my liking, but that is a case of personal preference and longtime fans would disagree. The tracks sounded similar and the album as a whole, felt a little tedious and boring.

(Melissa Ng)

ADEBISI SHANK This Is The Second Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank (Sargent House)

This album is well, er, the second album from Adebisi Shank, an electronic band hailing from Ireland. The band is to say the least, ambitious. They aim to “create a global new form of music” which captures “the anthemic optimism of your era (which) will eventually enrich the entire world”. And do they match up to their aim? Well, whether it will reach the entire world is one matter, but it does create a type of futuristic-progressive-electronic-robots-talking-to-each-other music I’ve never heard before. d.v.d, recently in town for the Mosaic Music Festival, produces the closest type of music found in this album.

Compared to their first album, this record is largely electronic music and less guitar-heavy. It could probably be a video game soundtrack, perhaps even for Pacman. Each track has numerous layers, and in the first track International Dreambeat, video game electronic music is paired with a load of percussion, with heavy guitar-playing. On tracks like Genki Shank, the band shows their versatility by jumping into pop-punk-esque tunes on the guitar. The band also reveals their post-rock influences with clever use of subtle percussion, keyboards and electronic effects on (-_-) (yes, that is the track name). Conor J O’Brien (of Villagers fame) also contributed vocals on Europa, a meaty, unrelenting and heavy track with surprising choral tones at the end.

However, the many tracks start sounding like one continuous track after some time, and it becomes difficult to distinguish them from one another. Each track is also so full of electronic effects that it can get tiring on the ears, and unlike most post-rock albums, there is no creation of soundscapes, but merely the cramming of too many influences, instruments, and effects into 30 plus minutes. The album is overall extremely enjoyable in small doses, but is overambitious at times, sounding like musicians trying out all their ideas in the span of a single recording session.

(Melissa Ng)

AN HORSE Walls (Cortex)

An Horse, the duo of Kate Cooper (singer/guitarist) and Damon Cox (drummer/singer) from Down Under, is back with their second full-length album, Walls. They had a well-received performance in Singapore last October at TAB, unsurprising since the energy of the band is translated into (only) the beginning of this album. Fans of the band would also (probably) be pleased to know that Walls is similar to their first album, Rearrange Beds.

The album opens with Dressed Sharply, one of the more remarkable tracks on the album, getting the listener pumped up, being easy to sing along to and has much instrumentation. Not Mine also continues the album on a good note, being dark and intense yet remaining melodic a la The Cribs. Tracks and Tears is a mid-album track that continues in the same vein, with heavy bass and strong vocals. But by this point the album becomes exhausting and tedious to listen to, as tracks become indistinguishable from each other. Walls, the title track, starts the slow-down that most albums have.

But honestly, by the eighth track, 100 Whales, the listener would probably have lost interest and switched to another album to listen to. Leave Me, the ninth track, is however, the other song besides Dressed Sharply that saves the album. The melody and lyrics in this track conveys frustration and anger, yet never loses the sensibility of a fairly catchy melody, and is extremely reminiscent of Blood Red Shoes.

(Melissa Ng)

Official Site

The Whitest Boy Alive and MGMT

24th March 2011

Suntec Convention Centre

There’s no denying that MUON, The Whitest Boy Alive and MGMT played well on Thursday night at Suntec Convention Centre, but the entire experience was otherwise marred by a disruptive and sometimes subdued audience with rude comments, as well as the seemingly lack of planning and excitement in MGMT’s set. Some hardcore fans of MGMT started queuing as early as 11.30am, while the rest of the crowd were mostly casual fans (who loved MGMT’s first album, Oracular Spectacular) and were teenagers and young adults (as usual).

It was clear from the start that most, if not all, were there to see MGMT and not The Whitest Boy Alive. During opening local band MUON’s set, some chanted “MGMT” while others complained and hurled insults at the band, which was completely unwarranted. MUON played a short 20-minute set, giving their all and playing their brand of indie post-rock which was in my opinion, thoroughly enjoyable. Popular opinion, of course, differed. Comments such as “we’re here for international bands” and other jibes at the band were heard, sometimes directly to the band. Perhaps this is why concerts should be held at Esplanade more often, since the people who attend concerts there seem to be less discriminating and might I add, more civilized. (Disclaimer: a lot of generalization is being made here.)

The Whitest Boy Alive came on stage to cheers from the audience (and squeals from the girls), launching into their song Golden Cage. Their set was 45 minutes, filled with their singles and more well-known songs from their two albums, such as Burning, Fireworks, Courage and 1517. Their set included a new song, Upside Down, which the audience gladly sang along to when prompted. Their performance was enjoyable and the music feel-good, though most of the audience didn’t know any of their songs, with the exception of Golden Cage and Burning. It also seems that fangirls will always exist (cue the screams of “I wanna your babies”, even if they are for a relatively obscure alternative indie dance band from Germany.

MGMT came on at 10.30pm, when most were starting to feel the effects of standing for a long time. The crowd had no problem pumping up the energy for the band though, as they launched into a one-and-a-half hour long set which included an encore, ending on a slow note with Congratulations. Their set was made up of songs that alternated between the two albums, which got tiring after a while. There was no climax or story told in their set list, and the only criteria in coming up with their set list seemed to be alternating between albums. However, they did prove that they were an experienced band in performing, with no major blips or problems, and their songs were performed exactly as they sounded on the albums. Audience interaction was minimal, though Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden did run in front of the audience to touch some hands at one point.

The strangest thing throughout the concert was the crowd, who was obviously excited for MGMT and pushing and shoving throughout the night, but became subdued once they came on. About 50 percent of the people there didn’t know the lyrics to songs from the second album, Congratulations, and stood stock still when the band played songs such as It’s Working and Brian Eno. The only time the crowd came alive was to MGMT’s most well-known songs, Electric Feel, Time To Pretend and especially Kids, all from their groundbreaking debut, Oracular Spectacular. Perhaps their second album was too boundary-pushing and eclectic that it became inaccessible and stale for their audience, at least in Singapore.

Interview with The Wanted

I met up with The Wanted together with representatives from other media outlets for a roundtable interview, with the band very relaxed (not a trace of jetlag) and munching on Skittles, even offering some to us. We took turns to ask questions throughout the interview, which resulted in a great variety. Tom and Jay were clearly the chatty ones in the group, especially Tom. The youngest, Nathan, seemed the most shy, staying in the back most of the time.

What’s your impression of Singapore so far?

Tom: Beautiful!

Max: The people are so nice.

Tom: We came out of the restaurant this morning, and five people were saying “thank you very much” and they queued up to say “have a nice day”!

Jay: In UK you think “Where are all the trees? Where’s the sun? Where are the smiles?”

You guys just attended the BRIT Awards, what was it like?

Tom: It was amazing to be nominated and getting No. 1 and No. 2, since we’ve only been together 8 months. Doing a Comic Relief single was also really cool, and we try to do as much for charity as we can, and we’ve been really busy, so just to be involved was amazing.

Which celebrity on the red carpet were you guys most excited to meet?

Tom: Cheryl Cole for me.

Siva: Rihanna!

Max: And Eminem, but he didn’t show up. He let me down.

Jay: I have Bieber fever!

So how did the dynamics of the band work out in the beginning? What was the biggest challenge in working together?

Jay: Actually as five, there aren’t many problems. It’s mainly with the record company, because the five of us have the same goals and what we want are all the same, but sometimes the record company wants something different. Tom can be really rash in a meeting and I’ll sit back too much and allow stuff to be said that shouldn’t be said, so we need to find a level to communicate with them. As a five, we’re a team and the record company has given us amazing support but sometimes we have different ideas. But so far it’s been going really smoothly.

Max: Yeah like Jay said, we don’t really have any issues. But sometimes someone comes up with a concept in the studio, and he clearly put a lot of thought and effort into it, and everyone’s just standing around and it’s just… awkward silence.

You guys are compared to other boybands a lot, so what makes you different from boybands such as Westlife?

Jay: I guess they do a lot of covers, and stuff that has been given to them. We write some songs, and we’ve got massive pride in our music and its music we like and not music that the record company gives us that is forced on us. Also, we’re really bad at dancing. Westlife also doesn’t have an Asian Irishman!

There’s been a revival of boybands and much attention has been given to indie music lately, so how do you guys compete with all these indie musicians for listeners?

Tom: We tried to involve as many genres as possible when writing the album, we didn’t want to stick to one genre. Obviously we’ve got elements of rock, R&B…

Jay: Actually, we’re indie too!

Tom: Yeah, obviously when we were writing we wanted it to appeal to a lot of people, and not just young girls, but to all the guys and all the girls. I think we’ve achieved that by mixing all the genres.

With the success of this album, what direction would you want the next album to have?

Jay: I think the work we’ve been using is great. What we’ve made is an accurate representation of different aspects of what we’re all like, the album tracks that we really like, singles we love. We’re going to take those, build on them, change them a little bit, change the genre, make more quality and content…

Max: Spend more time on them.

Jay: Yeah, because the first one was also about getting to know whose voices fit and who works well as a lyricist and finding a melody. The second album will be difficult, but I think it will be a real joy to make it.

Siva: I think we’re going to take our experience and produce it more like Guy Chambers, since he’s a perfectionist.

How did you feel about working with writers that have written for divas like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera?

Tom: We worked with Taio Cruz, and Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams wrote a song for us on the album as well. Obviously as musicians, we know what Guy Chambers has done for artists like Robbie Williams. But in the end, he’s just a regular guy, and just as mental as we all are! It’s intimidating at first, but you get used to it, and we’re looking forward to writing with a lot of big artists on our next album.

Do you think it’s better to be formed outside the public eye or on a show such as The X Factor like One Direction?

Jay: If you want instant fans, then you should be a on a TV show, since you’ll have loyalty from the very beginning and they’ll see you from the grassroots and vote for you and follow you to the end. For us it worked better away from TV, since it was less dramatic and it was about finding who fits together, and ours was really intensely focused on that.

All of you have Twitter accounts, so what do you think of the entire experience of interacting with your fans so far?

Max: They actually made us!

Tom: Yeah, because we didn’t have a platform like a TV show every week, so we had to build it up from somewhere, and social networking is the best form of communication, especially since we can’t go out and physically meet every single fan we‘ve got. We’ve seen it grow tremendously over the last 8 months, and you feel that a friendship is built even though you’ve never met, almost like an internet friendship. And when we meet them in person you already feel like you know the person. So for bands like us, social networking is pretty much essential.

Your pictures are all sultry and sexy, so you have an image you have to portray to the public and music industry. How do you express your individual personality in your music and shows?

Max: We do a lot of things on camera, and try to show as much behind-the-scenes footage as possible, on our weekly Wanted Wednesday videos. So the fans can see what we do on a day-to-day basis, and we try to get involved as much as possible. Whether it’s our good or bad bits, we show them all.

How do you keep yourself grounded with stardom and success?

Siva: Family is the one thing that keeps us all grounded.

Jay: We also keep each other grounded by telling the truth, especially when someone says something really flattering.

Tom: Yeah, we need people that surround us every day, who tell us the truth. We’re just five lads from working class backgrounds.

Max: If someone told me I’ve changed, I’ll quit.

Siva: I hope that’s not tomorrow!

This is for all the fan girls out there, what’s your ideal girl like?

Jay: I wouldn’t mind if she dresses with boho style, someone chill and a bit funny. Beautiful helps as well.

Siva: I would go for confident, wears high heels, nice hands, courageous.

Nathan: That’s the opposite of you!

Max: I’d say funny, ambitious and someone that’s very family oriented.

Nathan: I like a girl who’s really cute, quite chilled out and carefree, like me!

Tom: I like a girl who’s really outgoing, doesn’t really take herself too seriously, looks-wise, maybe like Angelina Jolie/Megan Fox?

Max: That’s such a bad mix!

Jay: Who would want that?!

Who in the group is attached or available?

Jay: Tom, Nathan and I are single, and Siva is in a very long-term relationship, while Max is in a new relationship.

So Max and Siva, how do you manage your career and your relationship?

Max: Well for me, I’ve only been with the girl for 3 months, and we haven’t travelled for this long before, so it’s a bit weird, but it’s great! Except the phone bill!

Siva: Lots of Skype!

Jay: Siva’s girlfriend actually leaves him notes in his socks, underwear, to say “I miss you” and things like that.

Siva: We were in Germany on Valentine’s Day, so the Saturday before Valentine’s Day I brought her out for dinner, to have a meal, so we would still have some sort of dinner. We make it work.

Nathan: This makes him sound like such a romantic!

Talking about tours and showcases, what is the thing that excites you the most when you’re on stage?

Jay: It may be cliché, but it’s when someone sings the lyrics back to me. I cannot believe I saw those words on a piece of paper in the studio with the alternate words, changed to what they are now, someone’s messy handwriting all over it, and now someone sings it back to me.

Max: I like when these really big, tough guys in the crowd get absolutely mushy.

Siva: Just to get it out there, I’m an awful dancer.

Jay: Terrible.

Max: Horrendous.

Siva: So I’m on stage, and I’m jumping up and down like an idiot, and the fans love the music so much that they dance with me, and they jump up and down with me, and that’s the best thing, to have someone else dance as badly as me!

So where do you see yourself in 5 years time, besides singing or composing music?

Jay: Right now I feel like saying I wouldn’t do music with other people because it wouldn’t feel right, but who knows? Well I like writing, journalism. So you guys better watch out!

Siva: I used to be really good at science, I did Biotechnology for a year, and I would go back into it. That, or Bollywood!

Max: I want to do film, but that’s not easy. If not, it would be great to study great white sharks. I have a passion for them.

Nathan: I’ll be a judge on The X Factor.

Jay: You’ll be 22 in 5 years! No way!

Nathan: Cheryl did it!

Jay: Yeah she’s female, and she’s 26!

Tom: I would probably do Geography, I did it for a year at university, and never got a chance to finish my course, so I’ll probably go back and finish it.

Nathan: So basically, we all quit music.

Max: I think I’ll do some rubbish films like Elvis did, then come back and be bigger than ever!

(Melissa Ng)

Pix by Su Zanne Ong

TIGER RIOT Look Up! (Brookvale)

Look Up! is the soon-to-be-released debut album from Tiger Riot, a five-piece band from Long Island. Look Up! is an album verging on pop-punk (All Time Low, The White Tie Affair) rather than one planted firmly within the alternative/indie rock genre.

Certain songs from the album have the potential to be popular with the mainstream audience, such as Damn These Electric Sex Pants and These Awful Words. These tracks are catchy and have the darker overtones that often capture the attention of teenagers, but the album as a whole may not be as popular due to tracks such as Daewoo on Fire and Smash Adams, which are too experimental for the mainstream to digest, despite Daewoo on Fire being one of the singles from the album.

The album disappoints as a whole considering its elements for potential success, as it is not catchy and simple enough to please the mainstream, yet lacks sufficient experimentation and cohesiveness of both the vocals and instruments to appeal to the alternative crowd. However, the album does gain points due to its unwavering efforts to focus on the instruments and not just the vocals, which is often the case. The last track of the album, The Trap, is perhaps the redeeming song on the album, having a great hook yet maintaining its raw honesty.

(Melissa Ng)

Official Site

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I AM SONIC RAIN Between Whales & Feverish Lights (Deep Elm)

Between Whales & Feverish Lights is the latest album from I Am Sonic Rain, an instrumental band from Italy. The album is well.. sonic, and very powerful and the emotion that emanates from it is fearless. On the entire album, the five-piece band is unafraid to push the boundaries by being loud, and very dark at the right times. Listening to an album is generally a journey, but in the case of Between Whales & Feverish Lights, every track is one.

The first thing that caught my attention was the album artwork, set in the ocean and the sky, which reflects the song names that are associated with such themes, and the interesting song names, which can’t hurt, in my opinion. The first track, Jellyfish Are Murderers (one of the interestingly named tracks on the album), sets the standard for each track with its highs and lows, and the second track, Fog Is Drowning Us, is one of my personal highlights from the album, being practically a film on its own, with the introduction, plot, climax and extremely abrupt ending. The Nine Unknowns is a very intriguing track, sounding deceivingly like a lullaby in the beginning and quickly escalates to a paced chanting, that can be downright creepy too. It seems to be a departure from the rest of the album, being the most unlike all the other tracks. The title track, which is also the last track on the album, is a quiet wrap-up to the album, with recordings of the sounds made by whales to communicate being included on the track.

Instrumental music listeners would love this album with its refreshing take on the light-dark contrast of tones and the overarching themes of the ocean with its playful shallow waves and the dark murky depths, but perhaps not as appropriate for virgin instrumental music listeners with its increased subtlety. Between Whales & Feverish Lights is also noticeably different from the other albums released by their label-mates.

The entire album can be said to made up of tracks that consist of the slow build-up to thunderstorms, and the sudden unleashing of rain and hail, when the song moves from a cautionary calm to an outright relentless onslaught (in a good way), just as the weather changes, which is rather appropriate, considering the album was inspired by the weather experienced by the band in their hometown of Treviso, Italy.

(Melissa Ng)

Myspace

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ANDY SHAUF Waiting For The Sun To Leave (P is for Panda)

Waiting For The Sun To Leave is a soon to be released EP (September 28th) from Andy Shauf, a singer-songwriter from Canada, and is the follow-up to Darker Days.  The EP is a charming collection of songs he has been playing live for the past four years, since the release of Darker Days. The album is stripped, back-to-basics album about life and love, as with most albums.

The album is a folk-pop album filled with easygoing tunes for a walk on a lazy day, as the second track on the album, Lean On, suggests. The lyrics are sweet and innocent, even reminding me of a much scaled-down Taylor Swift song. Songs such as Open and Love of Summer just makes me smile as they sound like love songs on a mixtape from a high school boy to his crush, albeit better produced and with much better songwriting skills, and similar to Never Shout Never.

Fans of Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson would enjoy this album, as Andy Shauf’s songs are on the same line, with the first track, I Don’t Really, being reminiscent of Devendra Banhart. The first and last tracks on the album echo each other due to the use of backing vocals, and are great bookends to an album for easy listening.

(Melissa Ng)

Myspace

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DORENA About Everything and More (Deep Elm)

About Everything and More is Dorena’s sophomore effort of instrumental indie/pop on a grandiose scale, the follow up to Holofon. From the very beginning, Dorena establishes themselves as a very tight band, united in vision and in the ideas they wish to convey, which are all apparent from the first track, The Morning Bus.

22 minutes into the album, We’ll Never Meet This Young Again arrives just as abruptly and surprisingly as a bright sunny day in Singapore in the midst of a monsoon season. The album begins deceptively simple but as I quickly discover, evolves into a scale of epic cinematic symphonies. This album may be no fuss-no trumpets blaring and orchestras playing, but no less grand, highly obvious in this track.

The album picks up from there to emerge into a new day of discovery and reflection. Perhaps the best way to describe this album is the transition from night to day, from a sleepy dream state (cue scenes from Inception) to an awakening to the bright new day of fresh starts, inner hope and peace.

DORENA is an an acronym for De Omnibus Rebus Et Nonnullis Aliis, a Latin phrase which roughly means: About Everything And More, which is an apt name for the album, being ambitious, yet not overreaching, as the album remains subtle in its themes and ideas. It possesses the ability to surprise and impress, and perhaps, be the companion to a night of reclaiming our youth, with all its recklessness, emotional rollercoasters, dark conversations in the middle of the night and the skip in your step on that bright morning as the world wakes.

I highly recommend this album to both the seasoned instrumental listener, as well as to those wishing to explore the genre and to broaden their musical horizons, for this album is a good introduction. The tracks may not seem different and distinguishable from each other, but I feel that this album should be taken as a whole as it tells a story, and is particularly important in this day and age where singles rule and albums lie disregarded.

(Melissa Ng)

Official Site | Myspace

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Baybeats, the annual alternative rock festival, is happening this weekend, 20-22 August, so don’t miss it! Don’t forget to check out the many bands that are playing at various stages around the Esplanade, many of them being the pride and joy of us S-ROCK supporters here at Power of Pop!

The complete line up and schedule can be found at www.baybeats.com.sg, and do check out the music from the bands on their myspace pages, and support the 8 audition bands this year at the festival (who are excellent, I guarantee), which are Postbox, Run Neon Tiger, Meltg Snow, Cockpit, Duxton Plains, Basement In My Loft, Trella and The Zozi.

And of course, there’s foreign talent as well! An interesting set to catch would be Typewriter’s collaboration with Jon Auer (of The Posies fame) on 20th August at 10pm. Personally, I’m looking forward to catching Jon Auer (US), David Choi (US), Modern Children (HK), Hedgehog (CN) as well as Mixhell (BR) at the festival.

I have with me exclusive Baybeats tracks from the local performing bands, complete with lyric sheets so you can learn them by heart and sing along on the day itself! And for those who aren’t as familiar with S-ROCK, this will be a good introduction to our local music offerings. Simply contact me on Twitter (@melissa31291) or send a message to me on Facebook (melissa31291@gmail.com) with your email address to get the download link from me!

(Melissa Ng)

Local band 53A opened for The Click Five at their acoustic gig yesterday at *SCAPE, covering songs by The Click Five, as well as performing some of their original songs. The crowd was rather receptive to the band, but of course, they went wild for the boys of The Click Five.

The Click Five took their places on stage about an hour after the gig was slated to start, looking drastically different from the previous time they were in town, which was in 2008, for their concert at the Indoor Stadium.

They opened with one of their new songs, I Quit I Quit I Quit, and most of the young teenage crowd sang along during the chorus. They continued their performance with their new hit, which is currently making its way up on the local music charts. During their short set, they also performed a crowd favourite, Jenny, which was the first single off their last album.

The crowd was pretty small, but nevertheless made a lot of noise for the five guys of The Click Five, who are here for the fourth time to perform at Marina Bay for the YOG. Judging from the response of the crowd, Singaporeans love The Click Five, and would gladly have them back, anytime, anywhere.

(Melissa Ng)

Picture taken from *SCAPE Facebook page.

Click Five – T-shirts – Band