Pop-O-Rama

Gas Haus gig 27May06
Originally uploaded by localbarkid.

Many bands. Plenty fun. So come come tomorrow night to Gas Haus. Door opens at 6pm. Localbarboy slated to be on at 8ish pm. This is how you get there.

Homegrown My Ass Vol.2

Yat of Valium at Gas Haus
Originally uploaded by localbarkid.

They tried killing off local music in the 70s. The ban on long hair and rock concerts then effectively killed off the scene and most importantly the industry. The void in the ensuing years was plugged by music from abroad. It wasn't just the recording & performance industry that was decimated. I think its worse than that.

As a teenager in the 80s and a young working adult in the early 90s, I was perplexed that my contemporaries have no knowledge of local music. The only thing they have heard of are perhaps Dick Lee, Tokyo Square and the odd songs here and there. To a lot of them "local music" is a term, an anomaly. Worse still some even treat it with disdain. It is also regarded by many of my peers as a genre. Like for example, I like sentimental hits, or I like heavy metal... or I like local music. I've only met a very rare few who have embraced it and take it to their hearts as part of their life and a personal heritage to be proud of.

Why is this so? My reckoning is as a kid/teenager, what we listen to on the radio (prior to late 80s, there was only one English radio station and one Mandarin station. No podcasting etc) determine our awareness and our approach towards it. If we don't hear it, we don't know it. So When we grow up to be adults in the 90s, we have no local music in our hearts. We don't know what it is. Many of my peers don't even think they need it. That to me is utterly tragic and sad.

Local music isn't a concept nor a genre. It is voices from songs, harmonies sung and written from our shared sociological experiences. And beyond that, it is dignity and pride that reflects an integral part of where we come from. Where we belong.

This weekend the barrage of gigs continue. Tomorrow night at Cafe Cosmo, Alexius will open for Serenaide- showtime 8pm. Saturday there will be two gigs, at the Arts House (Life Without Dreams, Camra and the Mother) and Gas Haus (Amongst others, Localbarboy comes on at about 8ish).

Valium played at the Gas Haus twice. I caught this last month.

Homegrown my ass

Possibly Singapore's finest!
Originally uploaded by localbarkid.

I'm sick of the word "homegrown". Everytime I read a report or a feature on local artiste (be it Stephanie Sun or the Suns) in the papers, they will always use "homegrown". How homegrown can they be when Stephanie Sun was groomed in Taiwan? When the Suns did one of the bravest thing by packing up, heading out to Melbourne and working their asses off to make a music career. All this with no help from the very institutions (radio station, press, etc) that has the power to make a difference, to seed and build a sustainable industry for domestic music. Homegrown my ass.

In the 80s, when Dick Lee's Mad Chinaman was released, it sold a pathetic few hundred copies. A despondent Lee nearly wanted to throw in the towel. Then a Japanese producer heard it when he was here on holiday and he went "hey! this is good shit". Brought it back to Japan, got a label interested and released the album. It became a huge hit and when news of that streamed back to Singapore, radio stations, the press and the public suddenly went "hey! this is good shit" and started buying it. It went multi-platinum selling more than 20,000 copies here. Before or after the success in Japan, these are still the same songs. What does it say about Singaporeans? That we need validation all the time from others before we know what's good shit? Like Kevin Mathews sang on his I Love Singapore, "The flipside of prosperity will leave us all braindead".

Last weekend saw a slew of local gigs. Friday was RNDM at Homeclub (Vallium, Vertical Rush and others). Saturday was even better... there were three gigs happening- At Gas Haus (Great Spy Experiment and others), Timbre (Documentary In Amber, Love Experiment and
Stoned Revivals) & the Arts House (ETC, Pat Chng & Highrise). Sunday was smashing (Force Vomit and Bangkok's Futon) at Barnone, with FV playing one of their best set I've seen for a long time. And tonight is Monday Sessions (Ocean Band, West Grand Boulevard and KL's KLPHQ).

I'm sure there must be other gigs over the weekend I wasn't aware of. It wasn't like that before. Not even in the "heydays" of the 90s. Certainly not in the 80s when there were only 1 or 2 gigs featuring English language original local music (now get this...) the WHOLE freaking year. Yes. 1 or 2 miserly gig a year. Pathetic. So last weekend I punch my fist in the air triumphantly and grin like a mad Singapore boy.

Chiang Rai Bus Station

Chiang Rai Bus Station
Originally uploaded by localbarkid.

The night before it stormed so the walk back was nice and cool. The rain trailed us back to Chiang Dao and in Chiang Mai it ended up as a terrible thunderstorm during our departure from the airport.

Nat claims she isn't a good violinist but like anyone of us, when you hit your stride, you can do more than you ever imagine possible. We all love Nat. Here she guest for Lunarin.

Radzi is hands down, the number one supporter of local music. At gigs he will be dancing and cheering, not caring one bit about how others look at him. I'm so glad to know him. Here you can hear him cheering Stoned Revivals' Esam on in the background. You can also hear his distinct singalong right at the start and throughout this wonderful song.

Nest

Nest
Originally uploaded by localbarkid.

She's beautiful and rare.

Holiday then GE... snap snap snap.... things move fast. We were there at Potong Pasir on election night. The next day the papers reported there were 500 people lining the streets to welcome CST. A couple days later, another article from the same paper remarked there were 900 people. What we saw was definitely more than a thousand residents. Oh well... Anyway my north Thailand holiday was fab! Radzi & Linda's wedding was fab too!

Playing for Fuzz's Life Without Dreams and now with his own setup Documentary In Amber, Daniel has really come some way. Here's a power piece recorded not long ago.

I've always been a fan of Stoned Revivals. On Monday at their Barnone gig, ex-Black Dog Bone, Sulaiman came on and blew some mean trumpet with them. David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti would have love both this.

At his wedding on Sunday, Radzi was like a little boy grinning away. A few months ago when he insisted that I must come checkout the Great Spy Experiment at the Gas Haus, the child in him was absolutely spot-on.