Spots

Hello :)

So I'm finally back in my h0met0wn--the dog eating place. Well, there's no internet c0nnection at h0me, so from the phone it is.

It's pretty g0od to be back because I can sh0w y0u my ultimate sp0t that I usually go to when I want to digest s0me s0ngs.. 

Yes, y0u saw that right..

It is l0cated in my r0om. Whenever I want to do my 'number 2', I quickly grab my mp3 player, then go in there to do the business with my mp3 on the play. S0metimes I spent h0urs in there, and I stayed there even after number 2's d0ne heheh. I can figure out riffs over there. And whenever I finished listening, I just clean myself, go out, take the guitar, then play the stuff that I just figured out. Heheh.

This has been g0in on f0r a c0uple of years. This t0ilet is friggin' peaceful and I can get all the silence I need even though my earph0ne isn't the n0ice-cancelling one. Also, I d0n't have to w0rry ab0ut h0w l0ng I will stay there unlike the t0ilet in my apartment, I can't really spend my time there because we are sharing.

My sec0nd favorite sp0t is in the car. No matter what car it is, as l0ng as it can m0ve. I just l0ve l0ng j0urneys because I can listen to stuff f0r a l0ng time while l0oking at the outside views. It is s0meh0w relaxing.

Well th0se are my sweet sp0ts. What ab0ut y0u?

Chiodos

Brilliant bunch of fellas. Never heard of them bef0re  'till a friend rec0mmend it to me. I y0utubed them, and because I didn't feel dizzy after the 5th s0ng, I decided to d0wnl0ad the wh0le thing.

 Each title of their s0ngs are unusual and kinda funny e.g. One Day Women Will All Bec0me M0nsters, If I Cut My Hair Hawaii Will Sink, Bulls Make Money Bears Make M0ney And Pigs Get Slaughtered, etc. They s0und t0tally emo to me even though the net said that their genre is p0st hardc0re. Oh wait, does p0st hardc0re stuff always start with min0r ch0rd? Y0u lemme kn0w. Out of 28 s0ngs in my playlist, there were only 3 s0ngs that didn't start with min0r ch0rd. The one that s0unded 'happier' to me was only Who's Sandie Jenkins. Hahah. The guys didn't look emo to me though.

The v0c's v0ice ann0yed me. Seri0usly. All of the s0ngs are high pitched. Well, it wasn't really a bad idea since the v0calist can reach it pretty well anyway, but after s0metime, I started to feel like he was trying too hard. So I w0uld say that I w0uldn't listen to them on a r0adtrip. Well maybe I can handle 1 or 2, but n0t the wh0le thing. Th0se will kill the excitement hahah.

The only thing that makes me able to keep listening to them is the music. They put t0gether hardc0re stuff with piano, strings, and synth. The piano and the strings sound pretty classical to me.  That's why I called them brilliant. Th0se things kinda add m0re 'o0omph' to the music. 

In conclusion, they're n0t bad. The strings, synth and all really make them stand out fr0m other hardc0re/emo bands. Highly recommended to those in favor of emo stuff.

Image from www.chiodos.net

Bull Zeichen 88

L-R:: Junji (dr.), Sebastian (gui.), Eijiro (voc.), Ikuo (ba.)

They're my sec0nd fav0rite band of all time after Maximum the h0rm0ne. I f0und them when I was d0ing my research on Abingdon Boys School (ABS) which only c0nsist of 2 guitarist and 1 keyb0ardist. The  bassist and drummer are additi0nals. They are b0th wicked that's why I wanna find out who they are. I f0und that the bassist named Ikuo and when I l0oked him up on yT, Bull Zeichen 88 came out. It was one of their s0ng entitled Pr0l0gue. And that first enc0unter was amazing. I fell in l0ve at that first s0ng and decided to do further research which means reading their biography, then obtaining all of their albums and singles.

So far they only have 18 s0ngs. They have no album, just maxi singles. One night, I turned on my mp3 player with all of their songs on the playlist bef0re I went to bed, then start to listen.

I c0uldn't sleep.

I was amazed by each track and I just went speechless because f0r the first time in my life I listened  to 15 tracks and l0st myself (it was 15 cuz the other 3 came out recently after I bec0me a fan). I mean, when I was listening I was just so l0st until the mp3 player st0pped playing because it had finished playing the last song. I was just staring at the ceiling like a retard. Felt just like 5 minutes, but actually it was alm0st 2 h0urs. When it st0pped playing, I was like "..man..". I c0uldn't sleep because I became too excited hahah.

Also, that night I f0und my 2nd bass hero--Ikuo. Hahah. He's one b4da55 bassist aaand kinda hawt hahahah

The s0ngs are full of surprises. There are several genres just in 1 s0ng (do y0u have a pr0per term f0r that? Lemme kn0w) and the arrangements are verrrry unique. Good stuff. Non-conventional chord progressions, and a lot of interesting twists. From punk to reggae, metal to disco but with heavy guitar riffs, and many more. N0t to menti0n the awes0me basslines and drumlines. Well of c0urse, b0th of bassist and drummer are highly s0ught after musicians. They play f0r fam0us singers such as T.M Rev0lution, Yasu in Acid Black Cherry, Abingdon Boys School, etc. In other w0rds, they are inv0lved with famous japanese singers and bands. They also play f0r s0me anime and game s0undtrack if i'm n0t mistaken.

Sometimes, I feel sad because I can't play ANY of their song :( but I feel motivated to practice harder :D So far, there are only a few people on youtube dare to cover their songs. There were only 2 bassists, and one of them can pull the bass lines of HAUU pretty well even though sometimes the fella can't keep up with the tempo especially for the solo parts. Well, it is understandable since HAUU is probably the most difficult out of the bunch.

Listening to Bull Zeichen 88 bef0re study or finishing up my assignment is a TERRIBLE idea. Because I will usually bec0me too excited, and end up picking up the bass and play rather than doing what I'm supposed to do =.="

Recently, their new maxi single came out, and there was a website pr0vide a demo feature. So i listened to it, and there was I, staring at the screen like a retard with m0uth opened. Same reaction. And it was only the demo!! C0uple of days after, I f0und the full versi0n. Wanna catch a glimpse of their awesomeness? Click here

Also, a couple of weeks ago somebody uploaded some video of them doing recording for HAUU maxi single. Aaaand finally, I can figure out what the Ikuo is playing during S.o.S.

F0r those who do n0t fancy 'n0isy' music, this is not f0r y0u :)

I'm back with some 2 cents.

yow all! The past couple of weeks has been HELL -- y'know, projects and stuff, but thank God now it's kinda calm. I did a bunch of reviews which will be posted later, and also, I got a couple of gigs. First one was a bridal fair, and the other one was a moon cake festival held by some local music academy. I was performing with a couple of friends for both gigs. One thing I love being in a band is that I got to meet new people and those that I've met so far are humble ones. They were very friendly and helpful to me too! :)

I've learned a couple of lessons throughout the week, so I wanna share with y'all.

For all of you band dudes and chicas out there, drum speech, guitar speech, keyboard speech or bass speech or any tone speech ooorr music language is VERY important. Especially when your bandmates don't speak the same language with you. Even though y'all speak the same language, sometimes you still don't really get each other. Lemme give you an example.

Drummer: "Hey, itadakimasu mitsubishi sushi sashimi daihatsu!!."
Bassist: "ngomong apa sih lu,nyet?"
Keyboardist: "char siu pau lo han guo wo pu zhi dao wo ai ni wan tan mee!!"
Guitarist: *points at the drums and say* "dukduk tak drudududuk tak", *points at the keyboard* "tulilut tulitit tulilut", *points at the bass* "du-du-
du-dumdum"
Dr & Bass & Key : "ooohhhh!!"

see what i mean? :P

I played with a bunch of Chinese guys, so basically I'm floating like a retard when they talk to each other in Chinese, and they usually tell me what were they talking about in the end. Sometimes they forgot to tell me and the next thing I know, we're playing the pre-chorus.  hahahhah. But in the end we still managed to put it together. hehehehh .V.

The second lesson is, when the amp suck and not loud enough, you can always request for a mic to be placed in front of your amp, then ask the PA guy to crank up the volume of the mic. The amp that I've used for the moon cake thing really sucked. When I crank the volume, it BUZZed like mad, and it's still not loud enough even with maximum volume. Fortunately one of the sound guy came and told me that they're gonna find a mic for me. Fiuhh. So, when you're trapped in this kind of situation and nobody offers you a mic, ask for it.

Third lesson, LEARN GRAPHIC EQ!! I learned this the hard way. During the bridal fair, there were only a few knobs in the amp which was only the master volume, gain, and mid if I'm not mistaken, and the others were graphic EQ. It was a reaaallllyyy old school amp. I was screwed during the first slot, because the bass sound was really treblish and I don't like it BLEH. But then during the 2nd slot I tweaked the graphic EQ a little bit and thank God I moved the right one that produced reaalllly solid and warm sound. I was too happy that I forgot which one did I move.

And so that lesson brings us to the next one which is NEVER EVER UNDERESTIMATE OLD SCHOOL AMP.

Fifth lesson, NEVER EVER BE LATE FOR A GIG. The traffic jam screwed us that night, so we were late for the moon cake thing, and the organizer was pissed. But then once again, thank God they still allow us to play in the end. Even though you know exactly that the organizer himself will come late, show some effort and be there on time. It creates the impression that you are professional, and you might have a chance to be contacted again for another gig.

Now I'm tired typing.

Peace & Stay clean :)
 

This Is It

Last nite I watched MJ's d0cumentary This Is It. Well, I've watched it bef0re but never th0ught of writing ab0ut it. Every sec0nd of it is mind bl0wing *that's why I watched it m0re than 2 times already :p*.. I know that this bl0g was supp0sed to talk ab0ut music n0t m0vies, but this is ab0ut a legend in the music w0rld, so, yeah... And I was mind bl0wn n0t because of h0w t0uching the st0ry was, but it was because I can see a glimpse of MJ's brilliance in terms of music, sh0wmanship, also i can see h0w pe0ple actually manage a mega c0ncert.. It was really inspiring. I wasn't a fan, I am familiar with only a few of his hits and didn't really bother to check him out last time because I was all for Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, and Westlife back then. Also because..

THIS. Scare the crap out of me.

Looks waaayy hotter this way don't you think?

But the d0cumentary changed my mind. He is so amazing that his face didn't look that scary to me anymore hahah. The beginning of the m0vie was all t0uchy because of all the dancer's c0nfessi0ns ab0ut h0w big is this thing f0r them *well duh.. U get to dance with the man who created m0onwalk f0r g0odness sake*. When it c0mes to the part where they were rehearsing, W0w. It was hard to cl0se my m0uth.. The way they all played the music was just mind bl0wing.. I am n0t really a fan of pop-funk kind of music, but MJ's stuff are just.. G0od. Can't st0p shakin my head and feet while listening to them.. The way he supp0sed to appear on stage with his r0b0tic c0stume, or the one where they rehearsed They Don't Really Care Ab0ut Us, or the way he gave cues to the musicians, criticizing the music *even tho it s0unded perfect to me :p*, and all the stage acti0ns and pr0ps were amaaazing. If he didn't die, that c0uld be the m0st spectacular c0ncert in human hist0ry.I think. I had g0osebumps just by watching the rehearsal!! Btw, the musicians were so g0od that they can came in all together in sync acc0rding to MJ's cue. Then I w0ndered h0w.. Cuz his cue was nearly imp0ssible! S0me of them were just a snap or a b0dy m0vement but then n0ne of them s0und late even just a bit.. It was all in perfect sync! They must have really awes0me chemistry.. There were only 1 white musician, which is Orianthi. The other guitarist l0oked really cute with his guitar because his b0dy is so big that the guitar l0oked like Guitar Hero on him wahahahah! The bassist was extremely gr0o0ovy~ but then there was one song where MJ said that the gr0ove wasn't there.. Hmm. That one isn't gr0ovy en0ugh f0r ya M? W0w. The 2 fellas on keys were awes0me as well as the drummer who l0oks like a b0dy builder LOL!

Now that the King of Pop is deceased, I wonder who's gonna take over his throne..Cuz there's no other artist wh0's as good as him in the p0p w0rld.. Well let's see...

lady gaga? so unladylike, and bad for kids.

rihanna? e-e-e-e, NO.

Justin Bieber? There was a saying across the net that goes like "god, if you bring MJ back to life, we'll give you Justin Bieber".

Adam Lambert? Can't dance. Nuff' said.

In conclusion, MJ is --as Beyonce would put it-- Irreplaceable.


image credits to :
stupidcelebrities.net
http://celebrityphotos.sheknows.com/

Incubus

from the phone. Notice the 0s? :P

Hm.. Where sh0uld I start? I decided to listen to this band when I was b0red and at that time i suddenly remember a friend who likes this band a lot and was the one who intr0duced me to Anna Molly. So I gave them a try.

I checked out some of their s0ngs on y0utube e.g, drive, love hurts, and some other hits, and each of them leads me wanting f0r more. So i decided that i will listen to their stuff from a-z. Well, turns out that they are t0tally w0rth my time. Every piece in the album is mind bl0wing given the fact that they didn't sound straight up alternative or pop or rock. But each song has different feel of genre that you can't really tell what kind of s0ng will come next. Many times they start the s0ng with just plain weirdness in the beginning, then r0ck out the ch0rus, s0metimes they go flat out funk, s0metimes alternative or even nu metal-ish *correct me if i'm wrong* due to the heavy guitars blended with funk basslines plus the rap and occassi0nal scream e.g, a certain shade of green. Aqueous Transmission is totally CHINESE. Check it out :). They keep me guessing everytime. 

The basslines are great!! That's one of the pre-requisites to survive in my playlist hahah. The mel0dy of their s0ngs are s0metimes pretty hard to grasp the 1st time you hear it because it was s0mewhat random and unusual. Especially the S.C.I.E.N.C.E album, many weird stuff there--a 'good' kind of weird hhehehe e.g calgone, nebula, vitamin, etc. The DJ guy indeed makes a l0t of difference to their music. Fungus Amongus album s0unds rather funk-ish to me. 

Oh! Did i mention that their lyrics are good? Hehe. I like the fact that they d0n't f0ll0w the mainstream trending theme these days which mainly rev0lves ar0und sex sex and sex *it feels good, i get it!! but c'mon!!! D0n't u pe0ple have other things in mind?!*

Anyway, I like the v0calist too! He's versatile. D0esn't matter whether it's funk, or r0ck, or whatever, he still s0unds g0od. 

Well, after 70+ tracks f0r a c0uple of days, I didn't even feel b0red listening to them over and over again *i still listen to them 'till n0w* and n0w I finally understand why my friend became a big fan. They're one of my fave band n0w hehe.

Hjfreaks

HJfreaks.. One of my youtube bass heroes. I found him 2 years ago (i guess...), almost the same time as Piyohikocsss. During his first videos, he seem normal to me.. But then as the time goes by, his outfits changed. He wear maid outfits, gothic lolita kind of thing, mini skirts, hot pants or even cheongsam which is @.@. But despite of the outfits, this dude is frickin' awesome. He managed to do the lucky☆star anime opening soundtrack which has quite repetitive bass lines but I'm sure it's darn tiring cuz it's mostly slaps n pops. He did it well. He did a lot of covers with his own basslines and He has a LOT of basses. One of them is a custom made with a picture of Konata--a character from that anime. The bass is supercute!!!

Btw, I like his style because he looked really happy in almost every videos. *sometimes so 'happy' that he flashed his undies LMAO!!* He usually does "cute" jigs while playing which I found really funny and so cool at the same time, because he can still dance even though he is playing difficult stuff. I think it will be really awesome if there is a female bassist who can do that hahah. Oh! come to think of it, there is! Check her out HERE but that girl didn't dance as cute as he did hahahahhah

He inspired me to do some 'moves' and look happy at the same time when playing the bass. It looks easy when he does it but it's actually verrry tricky. I tend to press the wrong note when I move too much and usually fail to look happy because sometimes I was concentrating too much on my hand that I ended up look scary rather than happy *scratcscratch*