yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Quirky and laid back, indie's darling band The Flaming Lips are probably one of the weirdiest around for some time, having allegedly started in 1983 when Wayne Coyne stole a collection of musical instruments from a local church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Hah I know where to go if I want to do the same.

Although The Flaming Lips are known for continually being written off as *multiple* 'one-hit wonders', they simply refused to give in to the odds, instead rearing up with a new hit single time and time again. Taking their first big single as an example, " She Don't Use Jelly" took a year after release to suddenly break into top charts everywhere. It started off an undergroud hit, led to a brief exposure of 15 minutes of fame on mtv, and to a "memorably surreal lip-synched performance on the teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, where a character uttered the immortal words, 'You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house! ' " ( as quoted from allmusic.com) . The song bore no resemblance to the rest of the same album.

I guess it is the same kind of spirit pervasive in their songs that I sort of identify with, and this is best evident with the " Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Song". A demented pop song with an insane yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah hook, pretty good lyrics that I actually believe in, and just wait for the bit somewhere two thirds through where there's a fool singing against the yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah that just refuses to go away. Wow.

The Flaming Lips - Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

and their official site:


Oh yeah if I ever have a funeral this tune will figure into it somehow. I would like to think I have a bit of this song. Bouncing along taking a swing at everything and simply.. there.

oh I do believe in all the things you say/ what comes is better than what came before

Before anything, put on Cat Power's " I Found A Reason", then read on.





And what's there for me to write? Her raw etheral voice speaks for itself. This is the song I imagine that when it plays just about anywhere, everything simply stops.. and listens. This is the song I imagine Wordsworth's solitary reaper to be singing as she bends against the wind. This is the song I imagine that plays at those sheer moments, when you feel things start collapsing towards the center.

Chan Marshall, or Cat Power as she performs under, had released 7 albums over the course of a decade, each to what seemed like almost always critical acclaim. Little wonder, for her sparse and simple arrangements bring out her catharic and bittersweet vocals to the forefront, burning away every thought in your head, every worry in your heart, every sand in your eye as you listen, and know that it all has to end soon. This song was taken off her album of covers, an amazing collection of Marshall's reinterpretations of songs ranging from the Stones' anthem "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" to Bowie's " Wild Is The Wind".

Plus " I Found A Reason" was recently featured in V For Vendetta.

Cat Power - I Found A Reason (Cover)

Her official site here:

alternative? maybe tis the other extreme

Now when the artist Björk is mentioned, what is the first thing that comes to your head? I can bet that it is the image of Björk dressing up as a swan. Even my mother knows about Björk dressing up as a swan. But set that aside, Björk is a vocalist with icelandic blood and her songs have this unique characteristic. I must admit that her music might be too alternative for the mainstream - not everyone can take the songs by Björk.

Hyper-ballad is sang as though Björk were in great pain - the song is virtually packed with all her emotions and it sends a chill down my spine everytime I listen to the song. I would recommend that you listen to it late at night when everyone's asleep and you play it full blast. It is then you can feel the impact of her song on you. Somehow as time passes, you would gradually be attracted to this song. Would you throw things down the mountain to relieve all that stress built up? Who knows, it might be a good way to relief stress, but don't throw things off your HDB as you can be charged for that.

"Basically, 'Hyper-ballad' is about having this kind of bag going on and three years have passed and you're not high anymore. You have to make an effort consciously and nature's not helping you anymore. So you wake up early in the morning and you sneak outside and you do something horrible and destructive, break whatever you can find, watch a horrible film, read a bit of William Burroughs, something really gross and come home and be like, 'Hi honey, how are you?'."

-Björk

Björk - Hyperballad

Hop over to Björk website if you need some lyrics for this song. This song comes from her debut album Post.

there she goes with a twinkle in her eye/ dont take a genius to understand the reason why

Sometimes it is possible to listen to too much dour 'indie'/alternative music dullards ( yes *you* Coldplay) and feel rather.. stale. You wish for music that brings a quickstep, laugh and a smile easily, preferably all three together and without any 'heavy' listening. And sometimes, along comes a band like The Pipettes who unabashly do all the above. The three lead ladies come in matching retro polka dot dresses set off against synchronized routines, and sing so sweetly your heart melts to their gushing fun dewdrop pop that could ice a cupcake . Come on they even have their own theme song!

Consisting of Rose, 19, Becki and Gwen, both 23, and an all male backing band The Cassettes, they have played many well received gigs in London ( Sweden once too) and released a couple of singles. Both impossible to find here though. " Dirty Mind" was their debut, and underneath this clever ditty of a song you can tell the Pipettes are masters of pure pop, masking sheer perfect timing and harmonies underneath a cute veneer of old 60s Shangri-las style call and catty echoes with an utterly bewitching ba-ba-ba-baa-ba-baa that just twines your way into your tapping foot.

Listen! And fall in love with music again!

The Pipettes - Dirty Mind

Find out more of them from their site, and watch their video of their latest single " Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" here:

and Rose is gorgeous dont you think?

sweetness, sweetness I was only joking/ when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head

The first time I heard The Smiths was when my brother put on " The Queen Is Dead" in his room. To tell you the truth I did not think much of it then. The lead singer was whining his way through everything, but still I noticed it was played often by my brother and I got intrigued. And in this album that is so typical of indie albums that refuse to be listenable on its first few runs laid buried a song filled with two simple jangly chords that got stuck in my head for a long while. " Big Mouth Strikes Again" gives you the bravado to run out and piss someone off just for the fun of it, feel rightfully good about it and swagger around like an idiot.

Anyway The Smiths were the quintessential Brit indie rock band about twenty years ago, somewhere in between the end of ' synth-driven new wave ( like New Order/ Joy Div I suppose) and the beginning of the guitar rock that dominated English rock into the '90s' ( as quoted from allmusic.com). Somehow, to all the people I have met, you either loved or hated The Smiths, thanks in no small part to Morrissey's unique voice. I fell in love with them, got their two " Best Of" albums if simply because I did not have enough money, and both became a rather big component to the soundtrack of my secondary school life. Witty playful cynical brit pop, with a lead singer that Wilde would find a good companion ( meh he always perfomed on stage with a pocketful of flowers, even on videos), that ranged from irresistable yarrrr! songs such as this to pure all-woe-is-me epics like " Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" were all done in a short span of five years before the band broke up in '87.

Morrissey still releases solo albums. But personally I prefer The Smiths. Shrug.

The Smiths - Big Mouth Strikes Again

Visit here for a good place to start discovering The Smiths. Ask me I won't say no how could I?

hm as a bonus, here's one more single from them. A raw swirling interwined array of Marr's guitarwork at his best complete with Morrissey's mutiple overlaid voices, for once totally stripped of all pretensions like in " Big Mouth..". Raw, deadpan, and to the point, with a devasting soundscape of anguish.

I've seen this happen in other people's lives/
And now it's happening in mine

The Smiths - That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore

p.s. one day If I ever do a ' Joke' album, this will end it while The Wallflowers cover of " I Started A Joke" will start it.

now for rock music

Alright, we have all seen the song selections by Zhanhui. Now here's the type of music that I listen to. ( meh. one of the first CDs I patiently saved and went out to buy was the Cranberries' ' Best of 92-02', featuring the single " Stars", which up till now still finds heavy rotation on my muvo -Zhan ) Rock - ahhh it is so lovely at times, especially when it's done by The Cranberries. They are an Irish band who specialize in songs that are immediately catchy and recognizable, and would somehow make you want to tap your feet and hunt low or wide for that one song you only heard once but know it's from them since they seem to have some kind of Cranberry™ mark on their songs.

You might have heard of "Dreams" before as it was used in one of the TV commercials by a certain local jewellery shop. Dolores O'Riordan's voice is unique and impossible to imitate - this song is very hard to sing along to, even though it is really easy for me to hum along to the tune. Listen carefully, and soon sadness will seep into your soul...

The Cranberries - Dreams

Do pop over to their site as they have audio samples - you might want to listen to the other songs they have created, all which are lovely.

And that was a feature post by Victor, a good friend and technical wizard without whom there is a high probability that I would now still be smashing my keyboard, giving a 1x good loud curse, and generally jumping around in an attempt to get radioblog to work. Ah the wonders of technology. - Zhan

you drink from the heart and you pour from the soul/ you listen to trash but it's not rock n roll

If there's a reason why I would like to spend a year or so overseas would be due to a desire to watch bands like Howling Bells play live at pub gigs. From what I can gather online, they are an Australian band just about to release their self titled debut album in a couple of months time ( hopefully a good record store here in Singapore will stock it), but have vast experience touring all over the world from Tokyo to London. " Low Happening" wastes no time hooking you in with a pounding drumbeat and relentless guitars that simply do not seem to let up through the song, but instead seem singularly intent on exquisitely stretching the tension, never once letting go.

If the melodies remind one of a darkening and brooding storm, then Juanita Stein's vocals are the mesmerizing flashes of lightning that stitch their way across the horizon, at once sharply bringing into focus a kind of silky allure that all one can do is to simply stop and be entranced. The first rain hits, but by then you are already too far enraptured in the song to notice, and there you remain.. being led on an uncompromising dance with her enveloping voice.

Howling Bells - Low Happening

A link to their site, and watch their video on 300k, plus the song is in a better quality than that offered by radioblog. The video's simplicity and elegance ( in a way) caputures Howling Bells well, and is one of the best I have seen in awhile.

oh yeh and Howling Bells was discovered from Fluxblog. Scroll down to the 1st of March and you can download the song from there too.

what a strange thing to say as you passed me by on your way out

Welcome.

Here's a blog, simply about music I love. What you will find here will be songs I have somehow stumbled across and have grown to appreciate so much so that I find them worth sharing. They are not bound by genre or age or any of that sort, but do not look here if you are looking for informed and professional music criticism. This blog is just a journal of sorts of the tunes I discover along the way, and from time to time one or two 'older' songs will be featured. To sample the songs, use the nifty radioblog on the right, and if you find that you like some, dont hesitate to ask me on messenger! It will be my pleasure.

To kick things off, here's the song that this blog is named after. The Concretes are a band from Sweden that realizes sometimes, all it takes is just a simple guitar hook, one woman's voice, and a melancholic melody to create a beautiful piece of music. Gorgeously lush, yet somehow shimmering with a quiet promise, this is the kind of tune that you do not take note on your first listen. But after some time, whether five minutes later or a month, it slowly seeps back in your mind and just sits there, beckoning for you to listen to it once more. Again. And again.

The Concretes - Say Something New

Even better, catch the video on their site.