Category Archives: Music

Happiness Is

Finding the browser window/tab that is playing the music…

And closing it.

YEAH EAT THAT, ANNOYING FLASH THINGS!

And now, to a random diversion.

It’s not that I don’t blog about personal things. Of course I do! My personal collection of Transformers and cameras and various guitar accessories which make no sense because I don’t have an electric guitar. (e.g. a Jimi Hendrix Crybaby wah pedal and an eBow) and three harmonicas (2 C harps and a C chromatic). I have a metal slide, picks I don’t use, a SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 which had EAX controls that allow every regular effect known (so I had a bass, distortion, flanger, but no true wah, which is why I got one), and a ukelele I sold off.

Chicks dig this shit, yo. (Picture recycled from this post.) There are three things very notably distinct about this picture:

1) I had short hair and was proud that I looked like Neo of The Matrix whenever I put on any sunglasses
2) I’m wearing a polo shirt (I swear I had loads of these back then but the stack got misplaced)
3) The thing that appears to be a guitar strap is actually a bag. I used to carry one wherever I went, filled with a 1 liter bottle. I was a thirsty hippo then.

And this, this is an undated picture of an undisclosed location.

While at it, I won’t disclose which hot chick rabid fan took this picture, either. Yes, yes, I will have your babies, don’t worry. We’ll set an appointment okay?

Anyway, back to me getting all close and personal.

It’s not that I don’t. In fact, I do express my deepest emotions, in convulated prose and rhyme. I only write songs out of bad things.

You want to dig the dirt?

If you hang out with me, you know where to dig the dirt – in person.

(stim-girl I miss you!)

But hey, I’m going to put up more text. Apparently, I get more comments that way. Ironically, this was not the case back when I had no pictures. So it might just be a I-miss-the-old-Albert response.

I worry about readability too; often I read a blog full of text which isn’t paragraphed properly, or with capitalized nouns for easier reading (yes, it does help). Stop randomly coloring your text! Your blog is not your History textbook.

I worry also if I repeat myself (on my blog), writing about something I’ve written before.

I worry about telling stories that have no point or entertainment value. If you blogged that you were brushing your teeth, that would be boring; however, if you blogged that you were brushing your teeth and then heard a voice narrating that you were brushing your teeth, that would be interesting.

I also see green and red zigzag lines under text all the time ala Microsoft Word.


Notice a missing word? It should be “taste so the different” dammit!

I worry that when I write text, it is often as a personal message to someone. I worry also that I write in such reverse order that the person often does not get it.

Best friends we are, you and me

Yes, that’s a line from a song some very few people have heard.


I find that best friends are a transient concept to me; I do not have a best friend, and believe the concept died after high school. Such alarming emotional dependence on one person is not healthy!

My friends waver in closeness; a close friend and I may fade into contactless oblivion. I may make a new friend on the LRT or at a gig. All it takes is that one magic question, that “meet cute“, that causes an arched eyebrow on either side, and wham!

I hate how it is, that I admire certain traits in people, seeing how it brings them such success… and I adapt them… much, much later. For example, if somebody starts saying a catchphrase, everybody else will start doing it before I do.

Heart, I Must, Music

Groovejunction, a new jazz bar opened on the 15th of March 2007. I came on the 16th, featuring the same launching lineup:


Lewis Prasagam, Yamaha endorsee and virtuoso drummer. 210mm F4 on the beercan. (Exposure data shall tread the fine line of informativeness without being geek just yet, because I say so.)


I forgot the bassist’s name.


Jose Thomas! Yeah he owns the bar, yo.


Shutter Priority, 1/6th of a second, ISO1600 with flash, to get trails of color!


Drum solo!

Jose also did a teeth solo as is customary, and I didn’t catch it on camera. 🙁 It’s otherwise hard to catch these veterans anywhere else than the Mont Kiara Sunrise Jazz Fest and say Alexis Bar, Ampang.


I then hopped over to JamAsia, to find a ruckus going on.


Reza Salleh‘s other gig series – Feedback!


Ziel, mathematical metal or math-tal, I’d say.


Happy headbangers.


For once, a healthy ratio between female and male headbangers. Heh.


21st March 2007 – College Night in JamAsia, with Hotscotch, a funky soulful rock band. I think.

This particular gig shoot would be a bit different, because I was showing Xian Jin some shots at KLPAC, which got me thinking about shooting from such a position to get a balance of different colored stage light. The right angles would decrease dramatic shadows.


Andrea can sing. She also always has a smile on her face. Good showmusicianship!


Collin Nunis, blues shredder. Intentionally shot at an angle so that he would be lit evenly by both colors. I also waited for him to step under the light so his hair would be lit!


He has a most kickass funk vibe, despite having a tiny wah pedal. If you can call that a pedal.


The drummer looks a bit like Asyraf Sinclair.


I went to watch Kingsley rock out.


Again, I forgot the bassist’s name.


Shoes, for you girls.


Guest vocalist.


Irotori, this other thrash/power metal band was supposed to play, but they pulled out, so Hotscotch was made to become a pub band and entertain everybody for the rest of the night.

I screamed, “FREEBIRD!

The bassist then went, “Freebird? Did somebody say Freebird?” annoyedly.

I later found out that the rest of the band loved Lynyrd Skynyrd, but the bassist hated the song. I won’t stop shouting “FREEBIRD!” until somebody plays it!

The tradition is that at every rock concert (in America, at least), whenever there is a silence in the performance between songs, a bunch of drunken guys would call for Freebird. Even if it’s a punk rock band on stage.

The more sporting ones would attempt to cover the 9-minute classic rock triple-guitar-solo fest.


Kingsley, master of mini percussive units.


I don’t know who these people are or how to send them the picture so here goes. Someone out there might know them and direct them here.

Plojekusu Baasuku!


J-rock night! Project Bazooka catered to the otakus on the 15th of March 2007.


Haze. Hot. Looked majorly tall but was shorter than me when she walked past.

The rest of the band were called Miniature Garden. How… un-apt.


Strawberry Jam.


I’m usually not a fan of Japanese culture, but I appreciate how J-rock is very technical and progressive, and hooray to them for setting up some thrash metal rhythms.


50mm F2.2 1/13s ISO400 with flash. The key is to set the exposure so enough colored motion blends in with the flash.


Played around with Hue/Saturation/Lightness for this.


Mage, the famous band from UCSI. Most solid with loadsa crunchy solos (but then again, UCSI does offer music courses…)


Moon (yes, names of members stolen from kittenly muka-chop-camwhorer ChingChing.)


Ichiro wins the award for best goth look.


Fisheye on my Canon Powershot A520 was about right; just turn on macro mode and all is good. On the Sony A100 the fisheye part of the Pro Tama 0.45x wide angle adapter is badly close-focused; I’d usually have to shoot at F22 to get any sharpness.

Mooning And Flashing

I borrowed smashpOp‘s Sony HVL-F56AM strobe flash unit for a test run in Laundry Bar, for Moonshine!


Reta! Flash bounced.


Jerome Kugan, bouncing about like a happy monkey to the programmed sounds from his laptop. It was then I realized that he sounded like Depeche Mode meets Morrisey (vocally).


Auburn! (Wireless flash, just activate Wireless flash mode on camera and flash, detach flash (by pressing button, no tedious unscrewing needed), raise flash head on camera to command flash, and fire away!)

I can attest that every wireless flash shot I took was spot on in exposure. No manual settings or compensation required. Also, dialling exposure compensation on the camera would also be transmitted to the flash, so it would power up or down accordingly.


Strobe mode, 3 strobes, 3 Hertz, 1 second exposure.

Oh and Auburn rocks. They play progressive rock with frail vocals courtesy of Izuan Shah.


Wireless from behind. I couldn’t figure out just yet how to eclipse him.


Lightcraft, indie rock darlings. How many times have I used these three words?


Muck around with white balance to intentionally cause the flash to appear blue. Wireless again.


Tempered Mental! One of the most solid, hardworking progressive/alternative rock bands. (Yes, no flash.)


Jack the shredder.


My favorite bounce flash camwhore picture featuring an interesting specimen. A pink-colored receipt was tied with rubberband to bring some light forward. Ignore the fact that we look like weird cartoons here.

Fireflies See The Light


Retaaa!


Xian Jin (the photographer formerly known as The Pink Frog) does something crazy – he uses his Nikon SB-800 wirelessly during a gig, to produce dramatic light, with the intent of killing off gig lighting, leaving only the performer appearing to perform in the dark to a torchlight.


Alaling, featuring Chaiiineeese people! (Right-side picture has me using the SU-4 optical slave mode of the SB-800… which is smart enough to ignore preflashes. Awesome!)

I first met Ching-Ching of Alaling outside Rock The World 7. Chak, rockstar vocalist of Superbar, was going around, on the lookout for Chinese people (since RTW7’s crowd was mostly Malay.) He spotted Kingsley and I and exclaimed, “Hey look! It’s… Chinese people!

We then went around, pointing at Chinese people whenever we spotted one. Our numbers grew!

(He also found Yi Jian, who I was supposed to meet.)


Ching-Ching gets Adlin the band slut to advertise the band’s URL.

Check out Ching-Ching‘s site, and her blog. (With a URL like intergalacticgalacticgalactic you can’t help but go white-rapper-boy hyper, yo.) It’s hilarious and cute and funny and brings a smile to my face.

Wai Fon was gushing over Alaling’s songs earlier; little did I know I’d met them before.


Long Story Short, with my Sony A100 with my DIY sync-flash connector to Nikon SB-28, then triggering the SB-800 in SU-4 optical slave mode. I think.


No flash.


Well, to cut a long story short…


…we think we look good in gig lighting anyway.


Me and Xian Jin’s Nikon D80 with vertical grip and the famous Nikkor 50mm F1.8D. Silver 52-58mm step up ring adds a touch of class to the front. Since the SB-800 was placed on a speaker, turning the camera sideways or upside-down would hide its commander flash from getting to the SB-800.


Lipel. Or Lipet. Or whatever.


Asyraf Lee and rabid fan.


Paolo Delfino!


Paolo and 2 strobes from the Nikon SB-28.


Paolo and a few more strobes. Not so pretty. But he sings songs about 16-year old girls. Isn’t that pretty?


Silent Scenery. Kit kicks ass; he plays post-rock intros and sings wistfully.


Joined by Paolo and Lipet/Lipel/Lipei.


The old flash setup, Generation 2.

Estranged And A Party

Estranged – In Hating Memory Album (re)Launch, at Laundry Bar, 28th February 2007.

Yes, once upon a time, it was called Estranged – In Hating Memory the EP. Back when it was launched in The New Paul’s Place. Now it includes a new hit single, Itu Kamu, and remastered sound!

Once upon a time, it was also one of the bands I saw at my first ever No Black Tie gig. I even went up to the then bassist and started lushing praises.


Bel C the emcee! Where’s my free tee?


Guest bands included Triple6Poser, with Khai on guitar.


Eddy on blues harp and vocals. How’d I do that effect? Whenever I flash I shoot in Shutter Priority, and adjust the shutter speed to let in enough light. The camera will balance the flash accordingly, and it helps to hide the effect of harsh direct flash. This was 1/10th of a second, F5.6, ISO400.


Breakin’ string blues.


King of the low end.


Stonebay, grunge outfit.


They Will Kill Us All, kickass indie rock with vocalist dancing about. Excellent showmanship!


Slap that mike.


This is one of the rare times I use Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation/Lightness to boost magenta saturation.


And then there was Estranged!


1/13s on Hanafi.


Andy weeps that he never gets the limelight. Well at least he appeared on giant billboards before.


It’s the Abang Rom of ROTTW Magazine!


Richael croons.


I thought Itu Kamu was a suspiciously Indonesian-rock-sounding song. I say Jual Keluar!


We still rock, you know.


CK slaps.


One of those rare zoom and flash slow-synced pictures that work. 1/13s for subtlety.


Bel: Okay guys show’s over now go check out my travel show on 8TV 9:30pm Wednesday nights!


Kami bukan black metal. AFUNDI RICH!

My first ever picture on the Sony A100 with internal flash causing red eyes! A rarity indeed.


Fast forward to 17th March 2007, Khai-Lee’s housewarming/secret singer-songwriter/open-mike gig/party.


This picture cracks me up every time! Doesn’t she look like a certain Towke Cina of a live music venue?


It was a fun night. We all played rock covers, sang along, especially to the solos! Dave Grohl and Jack Black would’ve been proud.


Sing yourself to sleep. I finally got to see Yu-Ri‘s amazing human jukebox capabilities. He can figure out the chords to about any pop song!

Jammed Asia Weekend

What: KL JamAsia’s 2nd Anniversary
When: 24th March 2007
Where: JamAsia, Desa Sri Hartamas (behind the Maybank)
How Much: RM30 (9-10pm free flow), and after 10pm, RM20 with free beer/soft drink
Who: Crosstown Traffic, Beat The System, Indka, Stonebay, V3, Carbolic Smokeballs, Ask Me Again, International Groove Collective

Crosstown Traffic is a kickass classic rock band! They played a Cream cover and made me cream… (well okay they didn’t, but figuratively.)

There is also free flow of beer from 9pm to 10pm.

I was there on their first anniversary, and it really was true free flow of beer. None of that Oktoberfest in Malaysia nonsense.

Oh, and if you’re just there for the music, well last year’s one had bands playing special birthday-request songs and extended solos.

What: Zubira Like Never Before
When: 8:30pm 25th March 2007
Where: JamAsia, Desa Sri Hartamas (behind the Maybank)
How Much: RM12
Who: Zubira, Triple6Poser, Cats In Love

Zubira is a shredder with pop sensibilities.

This gig is very much bluesy hard rock. (Cats In Love shares a few members with Crosstown Traffic.)

S.A.D.


Getting all wet!


Flashback, February 15th 2007.


Singles’ Night, KL Jamasia. As with all singles’ nights I’d been for, this was no different, not escaping the curse of ultimately being a fete de la sausage.

Maybe, one guy will leave with the only hot chick and her friend. Lucky bastard. :D:D:D


Which may or may not explain how I teleported here, to Project Bazooka’s Singles’ Traffic Light party!


…albeit quite late, but in time for the band I’d came for – Bittersweet.


Happy Britpop ala Supergrass. Stuff you wanna pump on your stereo.


Happy mod people.


This is why I rarely shoot at F1.4. Softness!


Smashing time.

Two Gig Or Not Two Gigs

Indie-licious, 10th February 2007, KL Jam Asia.


Edward Gomez says he got the blues.


PG165, modern rock.


Tap that bass!


Hooray Mr. Soundman for putting more of my favorite strobe lights on.


Crosstown Traffic, with THE N. Rama Lohan on guitar and THE Wong Lip Kee on guitar. Rueben also came up for guitar with Wong the usual shredder playing drums. They also played a bit of Queen, but what blew me away was when they covered Cream – White Room. Those who knew the song went wild. Eddy, I wish you were here.

Project Ei8ht

More trippy reverse-wide-angle-converter goodness.


Gotta love the acrylic B.C. Rich.


I.G. Collective, funk, soul and infamous Rock The World emcee Harooon. Wait, where is he? Oh well, I have no complaints about the energetic, hot frontwoman.


At the right angle, the reverse-wide-angle-converter can introduce a lot of funky flare.


Eerie.


Telephony Delivery, awesome post-rock.


SkyJuiceCoffee, energetic punk rock.


Happy Chinese New Year! Or so Desa Sri Hartamas’ lights tell you.


And now, for Hearts N Lightbulbs (which moved last-minute from Hartamas Square to Laundry Bar). This is Tarquin.


Erin and Prakash, emcees for the night. I missed Saer Ze‘s performance.


Zalila Lee and Jerral Khor. Intentionally tweaked the white balance to get the color isolation.


T.U.L.B.B. wants to be a fish.


To counter the dark inverse-circle made I moved the reversed wide-angle converter away.


Reza Salleh and his band of merry musicians. He was also selling his demo CD, Smokecity. Great stuff. I didn’t realize how multi-segmented the title track was, with all the dynamics (which I bet Melina loved playing), but being held together by Reza’s voice which maintains a steady composure. There were other songs which were just recorded as acoustic demos, which I’d have loved to hear recorded with Hanafi’s solos (because I actually remember them by now.)


These are the kids from St. Jerome Home that the charity gig would help. (Click here to help/donate.)


Nick Davis, singer-songwriter.


F4! My Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens, Asyraf‘s Nikkor 300mm F4D, and T.U.L.B.B.’s water bottle. I think.


Estrella played the Frente cover of Bizarre Love Triangle (originally a new wave dance hit by New Order, then covered as a gentle acoustic song by Frente.)


Smile! Say chairs!


Izuan’s in the hood.


Wong Yu-Ri on twelve-string! He played Free Falling, which he wrote for his band, Frequency Cannon.


Pardon the overexposed flash on Peter Hassan Brown of Soft Touch. It’s alright! He’s white! He’s a white guy! Get it?


Diplomats Of Drums, huge bhangra outfit.


Though with an interesting specimen.


Beat it!


The crowd bobbed to the contagious beat. He was actually chanting in English!

All You Need Is

Despite my accidentally non-conformist nature, I am really deep down inside, a conformist. I want to fit in!

However, I have decided to skip this year’s celebration of commercialism. Hmmm, commercialism. That word makes me sound like a whiny cynic grouching over every celebration where there is money to be made. But hey, making money is cause for celebration!

‘sides, how do I top Hannah Sarah Tan?


(From last year’s blog post.)

I still remember when I first saw Hannah Sarah Tan hannah t‘s Christmas CD in a magazine shop. I bought a 100 Plus canned drink, and noticed her CD going for RM18 (I think.) Wow. Without realizing, I gave the cashier two RM10 notes!


On a lighter note, there’s Andrea Veronica Fonseka (who refuses to rebrand herself Andrea F.) I can attest to seeing her in a bikini before that infamous picture, and she was certainly did not look like that then. Must be the rich food over there.

Watch out kids, 81% of hand-foot-mouth disease transmissions happen on February 14th. So stay home and avoid the plague!

Then again, if you can top being a top model, now-famous blogger model, hot dancer or car model… or you have a different, unique angle to sell, give me a buzz and I might haul my ass out.

In other news, spot me in the February 2007 issue of KLue. Sorry Davina, I beat you to it. 😛

Anyway, now for some pimping.

What: Singles Night Out
Where: KL Jam Asia, Desa Sri Hartamas
When: 7:30pm registration, Thursday 15th February 2007
How Much: Free entry!
Who: Hot chicks who probably have a thing for rocker-looking guys. And of course, rocker-looking guys, because that’s where they hang out – KL Jamasia.

More details here.

What: Project Bazooka (also a Single’s Traffic Light party)
Where: The Curve, Laundry Bar
When: 10pm, Thursday 15th February 2007
How Much: Free entry!
Who: Bittersweet, Lightcraft, Kluk Kluk Adventure

Oh, and I gotta quote this from their site:

Heard of a TRAFFIC LIGHT PARTY?

DRESS IN GREEN = I’m available. It’s quite straightforward. Go for it.
DRESS IN ORANGE = Hurry up! Faster! Time is running out!
DRESS IN RED = Break the rules… wink
DRESS IN PURPLE = I’m “Grimace”, from McDonald’s, not Barney, or Brinjaw.


How many Pinkpaus does it take to change a lightbulb?


Boys and girls, not knowing where to celebrate commercialism? Take your loved one out to one of Pimppau’s Pinkpau’s V-day recommendations.