Richard Jansen has just released his first single of 2017, titled ‘Bad For Me’. Check out the lyric video.
Also to be found on Youtube, the music video for Fym Summer‘s “This Girl”
… still there’s more …
Back in 1980, singer-songwriter Billy Joel was already railing against the stratification of rock & pop music.
Rhythm & Blues is the bedrock of much of modern rock and pop music. Basically R&B is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was coined in the post-war years to replace “Race Music”, meaning – “a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans”.
ROCKISDEAD is the album name that got our attention. Especially when the music inside is ROCK! Well, blues-rock if you wanted to be specific. Nothing too radical as the likes of The Black Keys and Deap Vally deliver a similar vibe but it works.
In our humble opinion, the Nineties represented perhaps the final great rock decade before being utterly overwhelmed by hip-hop music as the defining modern cultural zeitgeist. But what is interesting to note is that in many ways, much of the rock music made in the Nineties reflected nostalgically the pop music of the Sixties. Here are some examples for your consideration.
Photo Credit: John Stavas
More of the same from blues-rockers Deap Vally viz. Lindsey Troy (vocals, guitars) & Julie Edwards (drums) on new LP, Femejism, which is great news! Femejism is 13 tracks of raw power delivered in the duo’s trademark dynamic fashion.
At a time where there are millions of causes to get behind, some pretentious music-hating moron starts a petition to ‘stop’ Phil Collins from coming out of retirement. Over 2,000 people have signed the petition and of course, the music press gleefully reports about this juicy bit of ‘news’.
Re-watched the fabulous Brian Wilson biopic, Love and Mercy recently and of course, I spent most of it with a lump in my throat. Isn’t that what Brian Wilson/The Beach Boys has always been about – the emotions? So I decided to present to you, my faithful PoP visitors, eight album tracks you should listen to in order to understand the length, breadth and depth of the ‘feels’ that the Beach Boys are capable of evoking viz. loneliness, melancholy and the usual heartbreak. *Sigh*
“The Lonely Sea”
“The Warmth of the Sun”
“Wendy”
“When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)”
“And Your Dreams Come True”
“I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”
“Be Here in the Mornin’”
“Time to Be Alone”
… still there’s more …
Regular PoP visitors will be aware that I am a massive Beatles fan. The Fab Four (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr) were the first band I ever obsessed over as a teenager and Abbey Road – the band’s final LP – was the first album I ever owned.
By that time, the Beatles had broken up a couple of years already and the individual members were busy releasing their solo LPs. I had friends who were equally besotted with the Fab Four and together we even formed our first band – the Beatles-channeling Hornets in the mid-70s! Like many Beatles fans, I dreamed of a reunion and this seemed even more possible when John came out of his 5-year hiatus in 1980 & released Double Fantasy with his wife Yoko Ono.
Of course, that dream was smashed into pieces when John was murdered outside his home on 8th December that year. It’s almost 35 years since that fateful day but the Beatles remain in my view the best band the world has ever seen (and ever will see). One could argue that the Beatles were at the right time and place as the universe conspired to provide the perfect conditions for the band to irreversibly change the world and to write their names into the history books.
Even as the music industry evolves decade after decade and music revolutions come and go, the popularity of the Beatles remains constant and the music they created fifty odd years still resonate to music lovers worldwide. Though the band was once closely associated with the sixties, it’s might be said that they have transcended that epoch to stand alone and become truly timeless icons. Consider the immense popularly of teen idol Taylor Swift, a search on Youtube – probably one of the most popular websites that teens frequent – will provide about 6.1 million results. Guess how many results a Beatles youtube search will provide? How about 5.5 million! Not bad for a band that last released a new album in 1970.
And so… whilst it has been more than a good 40 years since I first heard a Beatles song, I rest assured that years may pass and the latest pop thing may disappear into oblivion (how long more for TayTay?) but one thing will stay the same – it will always be the Beatles Forever!
… still there’s more …
Final five bands!
Wouldn’t this be a kickass festival?
Mm.
Tzang Merwyn Tong’s Faeryville is a dystopian teen movie, a stylish coming of age film about youth making sense of their idealistic dreams in our increasingly surreal world – a fictional manifestation of very real issues prevalent in the Post 9-11 world. The movie features an original score composed by Alex Oh.
Oh is one of Singapore’s most prolific and versatile film composers. His philosophy to scoring is telling the story of the film through music. In his career, he has scored many award-winning features, ranging from comedy, family-oriented, action films like Taxi!Taxi!, My Dog Dou Dou, Imperfect, It’s A Great Great World to darker films like Bait 3D, Rule Number One and The Maid . He was nominated for Best Original Music Score from Asian Television Awards in 2004 for the TV Series, The Frontline.
Oh’s music score complements the movie perfectly with its edgy synthesiser ambience and choral nuances providing a contrast between innocence and danger. Also included is the dynamic driving “Baptism of Fire” which feature Jessel Yam and Alan Chan on guitars, Meryvn Lim on bass and John Ho on drums.
Read below what Oh thought and felt about working on Faeryville.
As the film’s composer, you’re probably one of the first few people to have seen Faeryville, edited and cut. What are your thoughts when you watched the first cut of the film?
Faeryville turned out beautifully. It has lots of depth. I like the characters, the Nobodies, Laer, Chloe, Belle, Fraternity members. There are debates on whether society is becoming or has already become dystopian. I like how Tzang uses the film to address certain issues we are facing in our society. In that aspect, I think he is successful in bringing these to light, as many will find after watching the film that they can relate to it someway or another.
Do you have a philosophy bout your music scoring?
I try to find where the heart of the movie is. I will watch the film with the Director and talk about it. I want to understand the film from his/her perspective and hear what he has to say. Why he/she wants to make the film? What is it about? What is it the story that he’s telling? Once I have an understanding about the film, I will let the film speak to me. I do not want to come with any pre-conceived ideas.
Are you kidding me? How did Mumford & Sons go from an intriguing alt-country outfit to a run-of-the-mill post-punk revival pastiche?
This makes Coldplay actually sound palatable.
Awful.
American rockers Incubus returns to our shores on 9th March at the Coliseum. Tickets are still available online: http://upsurgeproductions.com/event/incubus OR http://incubushq.com/
Check out this video compilation of live performances.
Regular PoP visitors will be keenly aware of my aversion towards ‘pop-punk’ in modern rock parlance. But of course, there is still a place for punk-rock in 2014 for any band who is clever enough to not be limited by ‘genre’ but instead is able to use punk as an attitude to approach music making. Case in point – Toronto outfit PUP, who consists of Stefan on vox / guitar, Zack on drums, Steve on guitar and Nestor on bass and simply classify their music as ‘loud’!
