you went away you can't come back

So what do you get when one of your favourite bands hooks up with another of your top vocalists?

A duet that is at once one of the most honest and sweetest of its kind out there, and yet is so delicate and dark that a melody borne out of these searing polar contradictions is masterfully crafted. Whirling you up by the ears and heart, Sandoval of Mazzy Star and Jim Reid of JAMC offer a window into an exchange speaking of mistakes and forgiveness, that could very well be heard anywhere and often but never as telling and sincere as this.

Sandoval's trademark seemingly lazy drawl comes on perfectly and without any pretensions right at the start of the song, coming straight to the point, serving as the perfect foil to the strangled voice of a man who is clearly the kind of guy who prefers not to blurt sorry in front of you but to be sorry whether you know it or not. Here however, he realizes that what he needs is simply too pressing and painful to continue dithering and decides to just shut his manliness ego up for once and plough headlong into the whole mess with a direct plea to her. Naturally it comes out clumsy and awkward, but oh well.

When a song is able to capture that much in 2 and a half minutes, you know you are listening to an absolute gem. Netting such nuances with disquieting tension that just cannot be ignored overlayed by what actually sounds like an upbeat tune? After awhile you realize it's appropiate, for the coasting upbeat here exists not in the same happy shiny generically teenagerish way most love songs out there mindlessly cram into, but because this is not exactly another of those happy stories with a certified happy end where it's all kiss and make up it's all a misunderstanding etc etc. The focus is simply on two people who are clearly dreading this moment but go ahead anyway, dropping all previous confusing murky nonsense and simply being honest to each other.

That is where the wry cheerfulness comes from.

Jamc & Hope Sandoval - Sometimes Always

the video is all good and really tops my list too. Press play.

talk about the annoying weather/ while we are together

Yes it's another Swedish band, but don't worry it's not a screwy one like Komeda. Here's a gem of the old school garage rock kind, shaded with a little more bluesy and souful tint that makes it even more of a find.

There is a certain kind of swagger in ' She's So' that makes it particularly unique. I cant place whether that is due to the singer's scraggy offhand swedish lazy draw, the guitar mash in the background, or the lyrics that dont really make sense by themselves but suffice enough to create a certain fresh, cheerful and stylish way of looking at a very old subject- a crush on a girl.

You know how sometimes listening to a song reminds you very much of a certain place, whether it's because of the stuff you did there before or perhaps it is just that the general feel of the place fits the song? Right somehow, I associate this song very much with Parkway Parade ( look I really have no idea =/). Specifically PP's evening crowd, the outdoors Starbucks there.

There's just something about the East Coast I can't place, and something in ' She's So' echoes it.

MANDO DIAO - SHE'S SO

them on myspace, where you can get a few more songs:

and in a blindling flash/ we ended in a crash

Yay in order to celebrate me missing baybeats at the esplanade ( note to self: always write full name and IC no. instead of just an index number lest the officer examiner gets pissed) , here's a madcap jingly made-in-singapore tune that my brother introduced to the hard disk just a couple of years. Right maybe Serenaide has been around for some time already and this song was released much earlier but eh I have never heard them on radio before back then so shoot me.

The only other song I can think of that might feature a local district or sight is that irritating ' let's take a walk down Singapore town/ it's an unforgettable sight' tune that you can hear around from time to time on any Singapore Tourism Board sanctioned advertisment or something. I dont know about you but finally hearing someone singing about a place which you can actually identify with, or at least pass by on a bus ride ( no. 76 for me) is a plus. But of course novelty gimmicks would fast wear themselves out if there was nothing underneath ( no wait I would give a LOT to hear a decent song about Upper Serangoon Shopping Center or perhaps Girl From Hougang -- there was a girl from hougang, she lived right next to me/ curse that name of a place Minton Rise/ lalalaaa la laa--)

Anyway apart from the local reference another thing that makes this song shine is the insanely eh.. *sparkly* guitar hooks. Like the lyrics they arent exactly amazing by themselves plus they are might be rather same sounding throughout but look, who cares? Fluff singaporean powerpop with something in it that begs you to put in on again and again without any idea why. And hooray to globalization and the net for Serenaide's latest single with "a very strong ' Friday, I'm In Love' vibe ", was featured on a pretty popular musicblog by this guy from US, Annapolis who describes them as "clearly influenced highly by The Cure and Belle and Sebastian". And that's a combo I have always been trying to find in new bands, the Cure's hookfilled wide eyed dark brash teen feel ( heh I shall think of something nicer sounding later) with B&S's gorgeous and delicate slightly whimsy melodies, but I never thought of looking in the backyard..

Hm but it puts The Cure's hit Love Cats in a new light if you sorta imagine that it was inspired by one of those gangly singapore matted mewing strays that Robert Smith encountered one day when he walked out of his HDB flat.

Serenaide - Girl From Katong

here's their site, and look for them on myspace for more songs too:

heh and scroll down a little from the Skatterbrain article I linked above for a view I entirely agree with Matt about the Pipettes and a read of a hilarious transcript.

an interview with the band done by a Victorian a few months back too

CHO CHANG WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Right so two brothers read the books, thought it might be a whole lot of fun to write lovingly crafted indie pop songs from the point of view of JK Rowling's star wizard, and come up with some utterly hilarious, sometimes actually touching, magical gems. Which they did, and I have to say they did it with such jaw dropping clarity and straightforward cheek that if I actually decide to one day read through the entire book series, it's thanks to them.

I mean I never expected such a searing and honest postmortem of a relationship to be inspired from a character in a book. What the hell you can hear the whole gamut of emotions that usually arise when someone breaks your heart for unfathomable reasons, that whole ball of hurt and shock wrapped up in defensive cynicism that has to be gone through in order for it all to be painfully purged.

The song starts with merely a slight tremble in the singer's voice and it's even kinda sweet.. but it rapidly shatters.. and the next thing you know, poor Potter unleashes a barrage of pent up questions and I dont think you can maintain a straightface when he bursts into the chorus buildup, screaming " why if you wanted to go out with Roger Davis HOW COME YOU ARE HERE WITH ME?" But look, he sounds like he really means it, even when he knows that the girl in question in such situations cannot be bothered to answer anyway, and you end up feeling up a little guilty and maybe a little apologetic to the hurt guy who is bearing his heart and you are laughing.

These guys are geniuses.

HARRY AND THE POTTERS - THE HUMAN HOSEPIPE

them on myspace, where the song and a couple others are able for download. Try " Saving Ginny Weasly" .

so Cho Chang, I think we're through.

happy lucky people (don't know/don't owe)

Bloody Swedes!

What is it with them that allows such bloody *bright* music to be spun out so often from a land covered 2/3rds of the time in long scandinavian nights? Whatever it is, they need to bottle it up and send it over to singapore. The ingredients list would probably go something like:

1/24 guitar rhythms so sparkingly addictive that you do not know
whether to laugh or cry
1/24 CASIO worthy beepy electronics
1/18 sweetly summery sassy vocals that do not let go
1/18 TGIF burst out of school/office/camp doors with
trailing swirly colours
1/18 criminally simple lyrical directions for leading life
1/4 roundandroundandroundandroundandroundkickasschorus
1/2 sincerity that makes all the above grounded and never
over the top

NO ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURINGS OR COLOURINGS
MAY CONTAIN NUTS

Komeda - Happyment

since they have disbanded and their site folded..on allmusic:

something to listen to after too much jamc, mazzy star and the like

so call out to nothing see if it awakens

Like coffee, this song hits and perks you up without you actually noticing it, and it's only when you stare down at that empty mug with brown foam the only remnants and evidence of the mix now swirling around in you body that you realize that what you have just downed is good. Very good.

I am not very sure where I snagged this song from, but I am grateful for it. It lurked around in my hard disk for a long while until I loaded it up onto my mp3 player sometime last year, and found its way worming into my ear quite often. The reveberating electric guitar at the fore is reason enough for repeated listens, you can't quite put your finger on it, but you follow its up and downs, changes in key, and shifts in tone that constantly keep the jingle fresh. Another thing is that the song is cleverly arranged such that the guitar, no doubt the backbone , is given ample time to settle in for close to a minute before the vocals come in, adding appropiately to the whole pristine and patient nature of the song that sings of leaving and creating memories.

Music perfect for watching the world go by, or at least for cycling along east coast with a good view of an oranging sky if youre the romantically nostalgic sort. The only complaint I have is that the song halts a little too abruptly.

Twin Atlas - Roll On

their site, nothing on them about them on allmusic though.

what happens at the beginning of time is that there is no time at all

For some reason I do not trust songs that start with a drum roll. Of any kind.

I have not figured out why actually.

But here is a band that proved me decidedly wrong, The Shimura Curves, or " four girls from london playing pristine electro pop" which is how they describe themselves on their myspace account. Listing under Influences in the same breath are The Jesus And Mary Chain, Destiny's Child, and Sterolab. What to make of that, I have no idea, but if Im Not Afraid is a product of that mismash, then I dont really care.

The song sounds kitschly pop, what with the blatant electronic effects sprinkled everywhere and oo-ah echoing vocals, plus the lyrics are all mathematical geekery, but somehow in all this a jaunty infectious tune is created that will have you humming " i'm not afraid.. of electricity" at suspicious times. Think something like the Pipettes, but without the colourful sashaying and cutesy stuff in the music and you have this. Not as slick and luxuriant, but all honest to goodness finely tuned melodic chaos.

An interesting quality of this song lies in that while it may sound simplisitically repetitious at first, no thanks in part to that computer doo-dee that goes on happily in the background as if it were the most natural thing in the world, it merely *sounds* deceptively simple. Like the universe of singularities and infinities it sings of, the song is best taken in its beautiful whole, a simple easily appreciable whole made up of tiny invisible bits and processes that are very complicated upon closer inspection.

Shimura Curves - I'm Not Afraid

from their myspace site, captioned "Effects pedals and glamourous shoes - that's what we're all about!"

thanks to fluxblog.