And now, for more delayed pictures from March 2006. Presenting the Xfresh Xplorer, our very own luxury transforming bus!

The Xfresh Street Surfers went to schools, colleges and universities with the bus.

From left to right, top to bottom:

• On the inside.
• Everyone wants to get in and be in.
• Everything and the kitchen sink.
• Crib, y’all.
• Broken Scar shows us where we can hide our stash.
• Waiting for something. (Note the sound console in the background.)

From left to right, top to bottom:

• On the roof; one has to climb through a manhole.
• Rails set up, mikes grounded.
• There’s also a Playstation 2 with wireless controller and plasma TV!
• In order to get in, you gotta play games.

Top: Panning shots of Farahwahida and one half of Mass Raw superimposed; left: Doul; right: the Xfresh Xplorer, fully transformed, complete with yellow curtain and emcees on the deck.

We now teleport to May 2006, the Xfresh photoshoot. Picture may be strangely familiar.

Men fret though about the stability of their cameras.

Note the happy couple. 😀

From left to right, top to bottom:

• A 3D Mark-like scene, with overexposed leaves.
• Same concept, on the floor, ala Unreal Tournament 2004.
• Containers ala Counter-Strike.
• Uh… cute antenna.

Run for the picture!

Trigger snappy.

Alright, show’s over.

On a side note, and to prove that my backdated blog entry has some relevance, the Xfresh Xplorer will be coming to Cineleisure Damansara!

What: MYSO Jam Fest
When: 5pm to 7pm, 13th to 16th July 2006
Where: Main entrance, Cineleisure Damansara
Who: Performances from Samir, Liang, MIX, Lips, C.Loco, Premelodic, Estranged, Broken Scar, Shazzy and Doul!
How much: Free; how would we charge you anyway?

MORE DETAILS AND FUNKY GRAPHICS BY SMASHPOP HERE.

There’s also the KL Sing Song 2006 at KLPAC.

What: KL Sing Song 2006 – Performance 1
When: 8:30pm, 14th July 2006
Where: Pentas Dua, KLPAC
Who: Mia Palencia, Shelley Leong, Reza Salleh, Ariff Akhir, Pak Pandir, Fathulistiwa Soundscapes
How much: Adult RM25, Student, Elderly & Disabled (limited to 50 seats) RM15.

What: KL Sing Song 2006 – Workshops 1, 2, 3 & 4
When: 1pm to 5:30pm, 15th July 2006
Where: Indicene, KLPAC
Who: Shelley Leong – “Singing With Style”
Shelley Leong and guitarist Az Samad share useful handy tips on performing with panache
Pak Pandir – “Lyrics & Creativity”
Pak Pandir talks about how to explore your environment through lyrics
Shanon Shah – “Make It Live”
Shanon Shah shares his experiences onstage and what it takes to be a live performer
Pete Teo – “The Indie Path”
Pete Teo talks about how to build a music career as a solo independent performer
How much: RM20

What: KL Sing Song 2006 – Performance 2
When 8:30pm, 15th July 2006
Where: Pentas Dua, KLPAC
Who: Pete Teo, Shanon Shah, Mei Chern, Meor, Broken Scar, Rhapsody
How much: Adult RM25, Student, Elderly & Disabled (limited to 50 seats) RM15.

More details here!

On the 10th of June 2006 (oh no I’m going back to a picture backlog of about a month) I got on the bus from Ampang Park to Alexis at Great Eastern Mall, Ampang, to catch the return of Shelley Leong and Az Samad to our acoustic singer-songwriter scene.

Yes, the caption is there just to fill up the space from merging two unaligned pictures, both 15 second exposures. It’s one of the rare occasions where I break my 400 pixel wide barrier for 600 pixel goodness. Don’t worry I’m not even breaking anyone’s view in 640×480 yet!

But first, Ampang Park LRT has a redeco.

And back to Az, always in motion, with the flow, playing virtuoso acoustic fingerstyle.

Shelley plans to take over the world.

Okay fine flash her, she’ll look alright.

New songs include Perfect World (with some Hendrix-like chord plucking) and Fragile Hearts.

Kevin Theseira can’t go wrong with the bass player’s tummy of tone.

Shelley is hip, yo.

Bow to the double bass.

This Washburn guitar hasn’t been christened with scratch marks by Az’s violent playing yet.

Random Alexis candle.

And now, for a blast from the past, more like blast from Blast Off! Season 2, which ended February 2006, but which pictures from various shows I never got round to posting until now:

Left: Solsta* had a cool britpop vibe with singer bobbing his head while singing Supergrass; right: Jiaja has the Hendrix riffs and fashion sense, rightfully winning the competition, proving that Malaysian voters have their head on straight. This 2006, at least, compared to the bum notes that were 2005’s reality TV show winners.

Top-left: Fugitives rock AC/DC style.
Top-right: This dude from 3Flow looks like smashpOp.
Bottom-left: The Exilers got to the finals. Thank goodness they sharpened up and stopped playing emo punk at the end, excelling instead at power metal.
Bottom-right: Mariam the hothothot host. I wish I had a clear picture of the hothothot Belinda C. too.

Nuk‘s bassist strongly planted the stoic KoRn pose for the rest of the band to follow.

Yeah, again, the dude from the Fugitives.

And now, for pictures from the Moonshine gig, 1st of June 2006.

A fountain in between The Curve and the newly opened Cineleisure.

The inside of Cineleisure goes on and on in vivid colors.

The cinema floor!

I imagine a senator from Star Wars addressing the Senate here.

Damansara Cineleisure. The only occupant at the moment being Cathay Cinemas, sadly.

Fazri, Yi Jian and I ended up meeting Paul and stim-girl at Thai Express, where I had yellow curry rice. Or was it rice with yellow curry?

Fast-forward to the huge Laundry Bar, with rock and roll band Qings & Kueens starting the set. Left to right: girl thinking, “ooo cute geeky guitarist“, cute geeky guitarist, expressionful vocalist and bass player bowing.

The sound console.

Mia Palencia (usually of jazz/blues/soul acoustic duo Double Take), plays guitar! I’d never seen her play guitar, and she was good on it, playing the blues, accompanied by Zalila Lee on guitar and Hardesh Singh on percussion.

I don’t like the colored lighting near the fountain; it makes it look less like a mafia family house (right-side picture).

When I came back from the search for the loo, Couple was playing, with Hana of Lucy In The Loo on guitar.

Look ma, I can play my guitar upside-down!

More distractions! Like these lights.

Reza Salleh faces the crowd.

I seriously wonder where all these people came from. I could not imagine all these people fitting in No Black Tie or La Bodega KL! And these aren’t strangers either; I recognized a lot of them! Maybe this gig was coincidentally when they would all come.

Stephanie drums the beat to Reza’s songs.

Hanafi of Estranged and Melina of Tempered Mental play guitar and bass respectively, and Reza now has a rock band!

Ywenna of Rhapsody is too famous. See? She’s overexposed.

Rhapsody gets funkier in this lineup. Left to right: Ywenna, Nicole and featuring Kevin the bass player of Qings & Kueens. Jimmy of Tempered Mental is further to the right, beyond the picture, playing drums.

Xfresh TV Season 4 hosts are first up on open mike, singing a cover of Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive. It’s the finale so they aren’t going to be voted out.

Broken Scar appears solo after a long time. There is something about his acoustic guitar and him that just sounds more like the way I’m used to hearing the songs played back in my head.

Some dude; I did not catch his name.

Lezel (Khai-Lee‘s friend) sings well, with haunting melodies.

Sad Angry Babies with ballads.

Plush Velvet. At this point I managed to secure a ride so uh yeah, no pictures of the next band, Estrella, or whoever came after that.

And now, for pictures from the Rock Chic’s Night Out, ‘A Celebration of Rock Ladies’, a rock gig featuring female performers, on the 12th of May 2006 (see I updated within this month!)

Rhapsody was first, with their non-rock inclinations leading to samba and jazz stuff. Nicole’s powerful voice and stage presence is indeed captivating.

Dipha on guitars isn’t part of their usual lineup. Sadly, I think the guitar amplifier was too loud, and his classical guitar plucking was honking in my ears.

(Irrelevant pictures might get downsized, like Lainie‘s chicken chop. Yeah, she’s the man, she orders chicken chop during a rock gig.)

Plush was next. Credits to Jasiminne for this shot of Melina and a Flying V.

The bassist looks awfully like one of my friends. (I shall start abusing Hue/Saturation/Lightness effects from this point on.)

So does the drummer Stephanie. Well, maybe.

Izwin sings alternative rock songs.

(Beer and women. Happiness.)

Jack the shredder is given a few bars per song to solo! This was the first time I’d seen Tempered Mental do that.

Melina plays bass and sings over complex time changes in what else but progressive rock. Funky thin neck effect was accomplished with slow shutter speed and flash.

Applecreed was next. Check out the lyrics!

If you run out of space, write them on the other hand.

Nah, she wasn’t referring to her arms at all. I see a place where she could write a whole song on. 😉

Blunt does No Doubt covers and ska anthems.

Yes, you can be fashionable in black and white.

Candy is a band that has been around and has had a hit single Akan Ku Tunggu.

They’re serious, with serious, non-girly guitars like this Paul Gilbert Model Ibanez.

Spot the POD! No, not an iPod.

They did some hard rock, and sadly relegated to covers, e.g. Marion Raven – End Of Me, Cranberries – Zombie and Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit. However, they rocked harder than any other male-membered band who ever tried to cover those songs!

I wonder if this is what becomes of bands that don’t retire – they probably play in pubs and hotel lounges. Paul thinks they’re MILFs. 😀

The sweet (Candy) bits were when they did Guns & Roses – Sweet Child Of Mine, wailing solos and all, and riffed together to heavy metal instrumental, Iron Maiden – Transylvania! Jangan tak rock.

The emcee was Juliana of Fly FM, and she was telling lame jokes. Yeah, your jokes don’t fly!

More reading material is at Lainie’s, like lyrics and pictures and videos!

My favorite ever band is back after four years!

This was RM99.90 at Victoria Music, on special offer.

The limited edition boxset has two audio CDs, one all-regions DVD, a 3D ‘layered’ cover, a bigger lyrics booklet, a notepad, a small wooden top with cardboard planets which can be put on it, artwork by each member, and…

The most interesting memento that came with it was… marbles! Unfortunately, the yellow one was already cracked.

This was probably the artsiest I could bother making the marbles look.

Of course, some of you might just go for the DVD, which is worth the price alone; it has the making of the Dani California video, the Dani California video itself, and a commentary of 25 songs. Interestingly, there is no interviewer during the commentary; Anthony and Flea are sitting on a sofa talking to each other about the songs, and Anthony tells Flea what each song is about, and Flea goes, “hmmm yeah that was what I was feeling, even before reading the lyrics“. They also talk about which songs they didn’t like at first. In the hall (I presume, the house they recorded Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Stadium Arcadium in) John and Chad talk about beats, grooves, and John occasionally picks up a guitar to show a riff. I wish they’d put a little sound clip for each song commentary, as I’d have to refer to the lyrics to see which song it was.

If you’re a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ later stuff, get the double CD album; a true fan would get the box set.

Funny how Incubus followed a similiar path; start heavy with funk rap metal, make a sober mainstream album (Californication or Make Yourself), make a melancholic sleeper (By The Way or Morning View) and hit everybody back with the best of their styles (Stadium Arcadium or A Crow Left Of The Murder). The boys have a new winner, with a double CD the price of one CD.

Click here for the review of the two CDs, on freshly fresh-looking Xfresh.

On a side note, check out what I found on Rick Rubin, producer extraordinaire! He is going to produce:

• Untitled – Justin Timberlake (2006), produced by Timbaland, Will.i.am and Rick Rubin (The Neptunes are not on the list, sadly… but Rick Rubin knows his rock and hip hop, so I’d expect something rather interesting from this tattoo-collecting bad-boy-becoming… boy.)
• Untitled – Linkin Park(2006) (Another very interesting prospect; he might steer them into credible nu-metal. I didn’t care for them much other than Hybrid Theory and Meteora.)
• Untitled – Slayer (supposed to launch 6–6–₂₀₀6)
• Untitled – Metallica (2006/2007) (Goodbye bass-playing Bob Rock. I reckon he’d let Kirk Hammett solo again.)
• Untitled – Kid Rock (2006/2007)
• Untitled – The Faint (2006/2007)
• American VI – Johnny Cash (possibly 2007)

Man oh man, am I excited.

And now, for a trip down Changkat Bukit Bintang, for the Troubadours gig at La Bodega KL on the 7th of May 2006. This marks the first time I use slow shutter speeds with flash (instead of the default 1/60 seconds) at this venue, always getting frustrated otherwise. (Jamasia has colored lighting, so it’s not so bad.)

They started with the open-mikers first, like Jay, the guy I once said sounded like Billy Corgan singing Kurt Cobain, which I missed. Why? I went to pee at the male toilet upstairs, and couldn’t unlock the door! A guy climbed in from a panel above to break open the handle and unscrew the bolt, but that didn’t work either, until he used the handle to open it again. I came out to some cheers. The guy who was stuck in the toilet!

I came out in time for Khai-Lee who might’ve found it a bit dark to find the guitar frets. 😛

I think this dude was Imam Piko (thanks Mung for the correction!) He received roaring applause. The best display of shared sarcasm. 😀

I think these dudes were Chi Too and Hon Mun on the right. (And yay he can sing.)

I think his name was Amin Hakim (Freedom Film Fest 2005 award-winning filmmaker for Romantik ISA, thanks Mung again!), and he sang bluesy love songs to Azmyl Yunor. (Though I think there are better excuses to get free entry to his gigs. :P)

Mekarnya Satu Matian read some poems, and some could sniff his rapperness from a mile meter away.

Estrella, oh how pretty and sweet voices they had to jazzy beats.

A haw-haw-hawt chick makes up one third of Oddstars.

Alang of alternative-ish grunge unit Men Under Zero Effort is the other third.

Headliner Broken Scar, featuring Zalila Lee on percussion, Jerral Khor on guitar, Kevin on guitar and vocals, and Alda on bass. Subject to change; parts may vary.

Besides singing soundtracks for documentaries that were recently banned despite approval, Zalila also supplies beats.

Justin Wong is recognizable with his black Suzuki acoustic guitar.

Shock System had the white political rap sound. Great guitar riffs and song dynamics. I thought they’d sound like Rage Against The Machine on electric.

Zalila and Jerral back Nicole of Rhapsody for an Alanis Morissette cover. Gig old-timer Peter Hassan Brown then joins for the cover of Time After Time.

Azmyl Yunor takes the after-headliner open mike slot because nobody else wants to play.

These church guys are fantastic, (plus they got stage performing stool persona) and they’re later joined by who I assume is a church girl.

Damn my memory, must be all those drinks people ask my assistance to finish.