Fictional band but real music

Gorillaz entertains in virtual reality

Gorillaz is a multimedia project created by singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. The pair created the idea of a fictional band, called 'Gorillaz', who would, despite their fictional nature, participate in as many activities as a real band would as possible.

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Thus the Gorillaz have been on a world tour, released albums and singles, made acceptance speeches at award shows, given print and radio interviews, talked with fans on their website, amongst other things. These were all possible due to the utilisation of a vast array of modern media and a huge range of talented artists who have all played their part in bringing the Gorillaz to life.

Enjoy their latest manifestation in Plastic Beach and from the album comes this exquisitely crafted Empire Ants.

Rock can't get more mellow than this

Jackson Browne has always had his own brand of rock, the inimitable mellow Californian rock which soothes you and sets you on the road to the vast American highways smothered by the beautiful evening sun.



His musical signature is a sound that once you listen to you will not likely to forget as it will bring back past memories when you first heard that song.

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Popular worldwide but hardly heard on our radio

Sometimes you wonder what it takes to get on our radio stations. Being popular in the international arena and sold-out mega concerts certainly are not one of the criteria I suppose.



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Slated to perform in the upcoming 2012 Olympics is London, Coldplay is certainly a well sought after band elsewhere but not on our pathetic radio stations. Here is Coldplay from their very under-rated album Parachutes which featured the song "Trouble" among other equally notable songs like herewith "Spies"

A Dashing Singer with a video no red-blooded male can forget

The famous video featuring a clutch of gloss-lipped, black mini-skirted deadpan models posing as backing band to the song Addicted to Love, is the late Robert Palmer's most enduring image.

Born in 1964, Robert Palmer joined his first band, The Mandrakes, at the age of 15. With his impeccable suits and slicked-back hair, Robert Palmer had a 1974 hit with the Allen Toussaint song, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley. A move to the Bahamas to record the albums Double Fun and Secrets brought him success with singles Every Kinda People and A Bad Case of Lovin' You. By 1982 he managed to achieve his biggest hit in Britain with Some Guys Have All the Luck.

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Three years later, a side project, Power Station, saw him team up with John and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran. The group scored three US Top 10 hits with Some Like It Hot, Communications and Get It On.

A prolific singer with a varied musical style, here is a hit from his 1978 album Double Fun - Every Kinda People

From Roxy Music to Mr Cool

Bryan Ferry formed Roxy Music with a group of friends and acquaintances, beginning with Graham Simpson, in November 1970. The line-up expanded to include saxophonist/oboist Andy Mackay and his acquaintance Brian Eno, who owned tape recorders and played Mackay's synthesiser. Other early members included timpanist Dexter Lloyd and ex-Nice guitarist David O'List, who were replaced respectively by Paul Thompson and Phil Manzanera before the band recorded its first album.



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Ferry continued to record, and released his sixth solo album, Boys and Girls, in 1985. The album reached number one in the UK, his first and only solo recording to do so, and also became his biggest selling album in the US.

Here is a great track form Boys and Girls - Stone Woman

Which Breakfast Show is the worst?

It is a daily struggle to find the best and not the worst Breakfast Show every morning. We used to have JD and Dilly dishing out not so great fare but at least they have a chemistry between them. But then they suddenly dissapear into a deep abyss and then just as suddenly reappear again on a different station! (I still pass a billboard in Penang every day featuring them with their old station!)

But JD has nowfallen into the sickening "Call and shame" strategy and so now I have to choose between them, another station featuring a PSYCHOLOGIST (!! - can you beat that!!) and another station featuring 2 guys trying to outdo each other to see who can embarass himself more! (I guess you guys can guess which 3 stations I am talking about - the rest are just not worth mentioning).

Can't we have NORMAL people in our radio stations? Guys/gals who don't talk much but are smooth and play good music? Dream on.... I guess....

I guess STYLE is something they lack very much and here is someone who has loads of it. Here is Paul Weller from The Style Council with "You're The Best Thing".

Jamiroquai is a class act

I remembered when Jamiroquai came to Malaysia a few years ago I was wondering why there was litlle and almost no publicity for him? Mind you, he was appearing for the F1 concert finale and yet there was hardly an ad announcing his performance. I would have attended his concert if his act was announced earlier but for some reasons known only to SIC they preferred to keep his act quiet until 2 weeks before he was to slated to perform.



Anyway Jamiroquai is a class act and he should have been given a better treatment by the organizers whom maybe have not heard of him? In any other country he would have been mobbed by his fans but Malaysians I guess will settle for Bieber fever. Here is Jay Kay from his album Dynamite with the classic lounge number "Seven Days in Sunny June".

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Great album soundtrack

Have you bought a soundtrack from a movie? Soundtracks are so hard to sell as usually only one or two songs inside are good. And it is even harder to get the songs to gel with the movie, you know what I mean. Good soundtrack albums are hard to come by but I have uncovered a gem.

From the 2001 movie "Bandits" produced by director Barry Levinson and featuring great acting by Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett this is one excellent movie with a heck of a soundtrack which matches the mood of the movie so well. The songs in this album are classics and well selected. Featured here is "Just another" by Pete Yorn.

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Good music that lasts

So many artists nowadays are producing songs that are so forgettable and shallow you wouldn't remember their names in 12 months time. What wouldn't we give to have back the good old times where superstars hugged the top 10 spot for 2 to 3 years (compared to 2 to 3 months nowadays)! And the songs they played then were at least songs which we could sing along too!

Here is a great group which produced so many good songs I had a hard time choosing one for this site. It had to be one which was not that popular and yet sounds so good. Here is Steely Dan and their song from their mega-album Aja with "Home At Last".

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Backstreet Boys are back?

Oh nooo..... not another BSB song! But I guess its better than MLTR, no???
These are the dreads we face each day in Malaysia when we turn on the radio.
James Blunt would be a welcome change or how about Five For Fighting? Sorry, not in Malaysia (actually only Superman ever got played here)!

In his amazing album Battle For Everything, John Ondrasik had so many good songs it is so sad none of the songs ever turn up on our radio waves. Listen to this one "Maybe I" and see why John Ondrasik is so heavenly...


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So many DJs but so few good songs

Our Malaysian DJs speak in all kinds of slang (Western? American? English? - who knows?) - which shows that most of them earned their eduction overseas and yet the music they play back home here in Malaysia stinks! Didn't they listen to more diverse artists while they were in their foreign adopted land, one wonders?

Here's an artist/group who has released a great album recently. They - Alison and Will from Goldfrapp used to play more lounge type of music but their recent album "Head First" is such a good dance album we really should have them on our airwaves. Sadly again I picked up this album after having listened to it on a Singapore airlines flight, sigh....

Here is the first single "Alive", 2 more singles have been released "Rocket" and "Believer".


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Thanks God Its Friday

Remember the movie? Present generation may think we are talking about TGIF the restaurant but it was the movie first which generated the franchise. It was almost the end of the disco era, and it was not much of a movie but the songs...wow! This was when Donna Summer gave us this electrifying disco tune "The Last Dance" which kept everyone wanting to dance on and on, forever.

Enjoy the song, but you should get the extended version.


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Artists that never get air time

Boz Scaggs - a wonderful singer and songwriter is another one of the many, many artists that never get played on Malaysian air. Famous for his album Middle Man and Silk Degrees in the late 70's through the 80's he actually came out with more albums in the 90's although they did not made the hit waves as did his previous albums.

Here's one from the album Some Change (1994) with a nice slow number "Lost It". They don't make songs like this one anymore...


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A Rainy Night in Singapore

Every time I travel it amazes me how effortless it is for other radio stations to play very nice songs while our local stations continue to churn out junk from the likes of MLTR, Ace of Base, Air Supply, Mariah Carey, err... you get the drift.

You begin to wonder at how Malaysians are being programmed to listen to the exact stuff those pirate VCD and CD vendors are plying by the roadside and wonder if it is all just a big conspiracy to get us to buy more from those peddlers??

Well this blog kind of started to hatch when I was in Singapore not so long ago and out came this song from the radio - "A Rainy Night In Georgia" by Randy Crawford.

As the tune played out I begin to wonder how many years would it take before this great (and quite old) tune finally gets to play on one of our stations.

Enjoy.


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