Post-Libertines Era

Last year was The Libertines.

This year, Arctic Monkeys have made history at Shockwaves NME Awards 2006 by claiming a hat-trick, winning Best British Band, Best New Band and Best Track. Worth to mention, Pete Doherty was there. What a great archievement for these young lads to beat other great bands like Franz Ferdinand, Oasis and Kaiser Chiefs! Check out the full list of winners here. (My prediction was way wrong.)

Arctic Monkeys @ NME Awards 2006 Acceptance Speeches

Explain to me if you understand what were they saying. I don't get their heavy Sheffield accent.

Mp3:

Arctic Monkeys - Curtain Closed/Rockefella Skank

Tribute to Man In Black

Tomorrow is the birthday of the late legendary country music singer, Johnny Cash. He was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on 26th February 1932. The Man in Black was well-known for his foray into the fields of rock, country, folk, blues and even gospel music, which earned him honours in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Country Music Hall of Fame.

Here are some interesting covers of his classic tracks:

Coldplay - Ring of Fire

Social Distortion - Ring of Fire

My Morning Jacket - I Still Miss Someone

By the way, I just watched Walk The Line, a film based on Mr. Cash's autobiographies titled "Man in Black" and "Cash: The Autobiography". The acting was brilliant. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon's portrayal of Johnny Cash and June Carter were mesmerizing and so heartbreakingly real. I was even impressed that they did their own singing, and the chemistry between them was totally convincing and made the story of John and June believably realistic. The stunning performances really deserve the honour of Oscar, but it would not be easy with gay cowboys standing on their way.

Soundtracks from the show:

Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon - Jackson

Joaquin Phoenix - Folsom Prison Blues

P/S: Was kinda suprised to see few young musicians such as Tyler Hilton, Jonathan Rice and Shooter Jennings (as his father) playing some music legends back in the 50-60s.

More on Franz

Picture taken by Gregory Leow for The Electric New Paper.

Picture taken by Amy Louise Dixon for MTV Asia.

I was there! Can you spot me?
**Hint** I was wearing a red shirt.

More pics taken by me:

Shit. The food party invitation was true after all. According to a Singapore press, 150 fans turned up at Intercontinental Hotel after the show, some even brought fruits and fast food with them, but were politely declined by the Franz boys. Still the fans got the chance to get close with the band. They signed autographs, took pictures and even hugged some fans.
Hell, I should've gone there, instead of having fried beef hor fun, ikan bakar, singapore laksa, oyster omelette and shrimp paste fried chicken for supper at Geylang. Sigh. Anyway still appreciate my cousin for the meal.

Franznatic in Singapore

Headed south to catch the Fantastisch Franz live yesterday. Forked out 100 bucks for bus fare to get to Singapore. Once reached there at 3pm, did some wash-up and grabbed a quick meal, me and sis took a cab straight to the stadium. Took 10 minutes to get there, and there was already a small crowd, approximately 40-50 fans queuing up at the premier entrance. Shit, I thought I was early.

While waiting, took a glance at the merchandise stall. Planned to get the tour shirt which costs S$35 after show.

7pm - gate opened. The security there was so much stricter than any concert I have been back in home. They scanned through every pocket, nevertheless, I still managed to smuggle in my camera. The moshpit was fully packed, I was lucky enough to be in the fifth row from the stage.

Around 8:20pm, all lights went off, the crowd started screaming, jumping, and pushing. A dude in bright floral printed shirt with striped skinny pants hit the stage. It was Alex Kapranos, followed by the rest of the Franz boys! They kicked off the show with the snappy 'This Boy'. The crowd went crazy, and I ended up being pushed to the first row, brilliant! Lost sight of my sis, but who cares? Expectedly, they played almost every track from both albums, including hit singles like 'Do You Want To', 'Take Me Out', 'Darts of Pleasure', etc. The energy in the house was so high, everyone was singing along to the catchy choruses and waving their arms in the air.

One of the many highlights of the night is 'The Fallen' when Alex introduced his mates. It was kinda hilarious as he described Bob as angel; Nick as heartbreaker; Paul as pizza creature (???); Andy Knowles, former touring drummer of the Fiery Furnaces, as golden angel. In turn, Nick introduced Alex as the lead who will break all of your (pointing to crowd) hearts. With their heavy scottish accents, I just caught a bit here and there of what they were saying. Another funny part was when Alex made comments about Singapore's warm hospitality and nice food. He even named his hotel and joked about inviting the fans for a food party. I couldn't catch the hotel's name (Intercontinental??), anyway, I guess he was just bullshitting.

During 'Walk Away', Paul took over the lead guitarist position, with Andy at the drums and Alex switched to acoustic. Awesome! Nick also showed his multi-talent by contributing vocal in 'Tell Her Tonight' and keyboard in 'Eleanor Put Your Boots On'. Another notable moment was when 'Outsiders' was played, Paul was joined by Andy and an unknown crew at drums. Paul even hit the drums with tambourine instead of sticks. My breathe was taken away by the raw drum beats, while Alex and Nick were seen doing some poseur moves, poor Bob was hiding at the obscured corner doing his own thing. =(

Encore part. They came back to the stage with 'Jacqueline'. When Alex hammed it up from the opening strum, the crowd got excited again. Other songs played were '40 ft', 'You Could Have It So Much Better' and 'Outsiders'. The climatic 'This Fire' was the closing piece where everyone practically went wild and screamed their lungs out. The show ended off with the band bowing to the crowd, followed by Alex jumping off the stage and shaking hands with fans (hell, the other side of the stage where i wasn't standing!). Also, Paul came in front of me and threw his stick, luck was not by my side, the fat biatch besides me got it! I tried to snatch it from her, but she was holding it so tight to her boobs, so can't help it. Argghh......

Exhausted and soaked in sweat, yet thrilled. Overall, the concert was brilliant, money was well spent. Only disappointment was couldn't get any souvenir (no drumstick and tour shirt sold out).

The setlist ran:

'This Boy'

'Come On Home'

'Do You Want To'

'I'm Your Villain'

'Tell Her Tonight'

'Auf Achse'

'What You Meant'

'The Dark of The Matinee'

'The Fallen'

'Walk Away'

'Eleanor Put Your Boots On'

'Take Me out'

'Darts of Pleasure'

'Evil and A Heathen'

'Michael'

'Jacqueline'

'40ft'

'You Could Have It So Much Better'

'Outsiders'

'This Fire'

**Clearly proven that Franz Ferdinand's music really makes girls dance, the crowd was mostly young girls, some even with banners with cheesy 'I *heart* Alex' messages, eww......

Was hoping them to play this:

Franz Ferdinand - What You Waiting For? (Gwen Stefani Cover)

How to Dismantle an Overrated Album?

I totally agree with Maddox! How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb may have won U2 five Grammy's, but definitely not qualified as Album of The Year. Not that I hate U2, the album is not all bad, but there's no experimentation and creation at all. Maybe due to the commercial success they found in recent years, they decided to make a pop album to appeal to the mass. Or they are just too 'old' and tired of experimenting new sounds, I know same said to Rolling Stones, at least they are still rocking at 60s and came out with the pretty good A Bigger Bang. A band like U2, if it's really as great as their fans claimed, should have come out with a album emulates its predecessor. In fact, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is nowhere near some of U2's best works like Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree. I still don't get how HTDAAB could win five Grammy's, in spite of the album being just another cookie cutter sound of rock music playing on air waves. Even if I don't listen to rap, i think Kanye West's Late Registration deserves better to win Album of the Year. U2 has been Grammy's favourite for years now, like last year, they won the best rock performance and music video for Vertigo. I think it's just the recent tradition of Grammy of paying respect to the 'older' or 'late' artists in the music industry by awarding them in some important categories. Last year was Ray Charles in Record of the Year and Album of the Year, 2003 saw Luther Vandross won Song of the Year. So this year they have U2. Guess we will just have to wait and see who's next on the list.

Second thought, I wonder why an album released way back in year 2004 won Album of the year 2005?

Mp3s of Grammy's winners:

The White Stripes - The Denial Twist (Best Alternative Album)

Ted Leo - Since U Been Gone (cover of Kelly Clarkson, this year best female pop performance)/Maps

Countries I Have Visited

Damn. I have only visited 4% of all countries on the world map. Hopefully i get to travel to more places in the future.
You can create your own visited countries map too!

Mp3s for grab:

Liam Lynch - United States of Whatever

Gorillaz - Hong Kong

Beach Boys - Surfin' USA

The Clash - London Calling

Rufus Wainwright - Across The Universe

Do you want to?

Just got the ticket this afternoon. Luckylucky... i'm so lucky... yeah!