My Top 10 Albums Of The Decade: The Nearly

Well, spring break has started & the sun has been shining for the past couple of days. Everything's just great at the moment! Before I head off to Atlanta, GA with the rest of my ASM gang, I felt compelled to do a write-up on the albums that did not made into my Top 10 list as they lost out by a fraction. So, to do justice to my musical taste, here it is!

Jet - Get Born (2003)

The rip-roarin' debut by this Australian quartet brings back rock & roll to its roots. The thunderous tunes reminds me of AC/DC but their garage rock influences makes their music dirtier, grittier & not to mention, shake-able. Having the talent to tear the house down (Are You Gonna Be My Girl") & belt out catchy ballads ("Look What You've Done") truly makes them the real rockstars.

Favorite tracks: Rollover DJ, Get Me Outta Here, Sgt Major

The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

Across the world, another form of garage rock revival (and the mod dressing too) took place in the boroughs of New York City. Their lo-fi sound coupled with Julian Casablanca's lazy & stoned voice was a perfect match for the ears to listen as exemplified by the songs "Is This It", "Someday" & "Barely Legal." This album, alongside The White Stripes' "White Blood Cells," brought indie/garage to the forefront of mainstream music throughout the decade.

Favorite tracks: Someday, Last Nite, New York City Cops

Dum Dum Tak - Hentikan Penindasan (2009)

A late entry but this Kuala Terengganu socio-political punk band is to borrow it from The Clash, "The Only [Malaysian] Band That Matters." Forget Bunkface, this is the real deal: they're one of the few bands that have the guts to say what they want to say & don't give a shit about what other people think about them. Songs range from anti-ISA ("Demokrasi Tanpa I.S.A."), rise in gas prices ("Petrol Petrol Petrol") & civil rights ("Suara Kami") will sure to make your blood boil & spirits raised.

Favorite tracks: Suara Kami, Perangi Mereka, Hak Asasi Hipokrasi

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (2008)

Lost out to Couple on my Top 10 list, this Columbia University prep-boys pack one hell of a beat. Mixing indie with classical and African tunes you'll get massively addicting songs like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "Oxford Comma" & "M79." Not to forget, the very very very catchy "A-Punk" that once got into my head for a week! Definitely the album to bring along on a fine summer's day picnic by the park or the beach. 

Favorite tracks: A-Punk, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, The Kids Don't Stand A Chance

The Thrills - So Much For The City (2003)

A good complement to Vampire Weekend would be this album that celebrates the beauty of America's west coast ["Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)", "Big Sur"]. Actually hailing from Ireland, The Thrills style was aptly branded as "sun-drenched, inspired by classic American pop of the late '60s and early '70s" reminiscent of The Beach Boys. 'Nuff said.

Favorite tracks: Big Sur, Don't Steal Our Sun, Say It Ain't So

The Otherside Orchestra - ElectROMANCEstacy (2008)

When the Malaysia underground scene boomed in late 2007, everyone pretty much wanted to be in an indie band but not these guys. Their brand of hard-hitting "rock-tronica" coupled with the haunting voice of Dhiya Izwin besides having their own lighting effects during their live shows (which is a must) takes raving to a whole new level.

Favorite tracks: Eksperimentasi Elektro Cinta, Possessive, Eternal Punishment

Lily Allen - Alright, Still (2006)

I'm not a fan of mainstream pop stars & had a fleeting period liking a couple of her songs but once I re-listened this album again, I fell in love with Lily Allen. I was swayed because her music is deeply influenced by ska and dub ("LDN", "Friday Night", "Friend Of Mine") that was sadly not apparent in her sophomore album. This is one fine piece of British street music that is worth delving into or in my case, having an infatuation with ;)

Favorite tracks: LDN, Friday Night, Everything's Just Wonderful

My Top 10 Albums Of The Decade

Yes! It's the time of the year for people to do lists & one list I won't be doing is "My New Year's Resolution" because face it, you'll be trying to break each and every one of those resolutions you wrote down before the end of next year. So, since this will be the end of the first decade of the noughties, I'll wrap it up with my best ten albums that holds dear to my heart & are musically, if not culturally, significant to the masses.

 











Green Day - American Idiot (2004)  
Green Day was the first ever band I listened to when I got into music & when this album came out I said to myself: this is the rock opera of the 21st century. Clocking at nearly an hour, this album takes you through the life of Jesus of Suburbia filled with hope & despair in typical three-cord punk rock fashion. All songs were solid but what surprised me was their two 9-minute epics "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" that consist of five medleys played furiously non-stop, not letting me catch a breather at all. 
Favorite tracks: Letterbomb, Whatsername, Jesus of Suburbia.

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (2005)
Move aside The Killers, the real post-punk revivalists are none other than London's Bloc Party. First introduced by my cousin, it took a while to get into their groove but when it clicked, I just got hooked to it. Blending intense guitar rhythms, tight drum beats & Kele Okereke's hallowing voice, "Silent Alarm" also packs a punch with socio-political messages in their lyrics e.g. "Helicopter" is basically a bash on George W. Bush ["Just like his dad, just like his dad (the same mistakes); some things will never be different"].
Favorite tracks: Helicopter, This Modern Love, Pioneers.

Butterfingers - Selamat Tinggal Dunia (2005)
I dare say that this was the album that sparked Malaysia's indie music scene three years later. Although panned by the local media,they made a right move in shedding their Nirvana-esque 90's grunge & took their experimental progressive folk a step further by launching a full-Malay album. The result: an absolute bliss of fusion  between their brand of music with Malay culture e.g. "Tentang-Tentang" was adapted from a traditional Malay tune ("Geylang Si Paku Geylang") and turned into a protest-folk song.
Favorite tracks: Daulat Tuanku, Selamat Tinggal Dunia, Kabus Ribut 

The White Stripes - Elephant (2003)
There's only one word to describe this album: monu-fucking-mental. Everyone thought "Fell In Love With A Girl" was a one-off hit for them but they came back with a big one. It's garage rock at its purest with Meg White pummelling the drums & Jack White plucking the guitar strings like the gods of rock riding on a thunderstorm. Case in point: the  mind-blowing "Ball & Biscuit" intertwines calm verses with gargantuan rollicking guitar solos by the male half of The White Stripes.
Favorite tracks: Ball & Biscuit, The Hardest Button To Button, There's No Home For You Here.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006) 
These Sheffield lads' debut album took the whole world by storm because 1) they used the internet to give away free songs and 2) they're just that good. What makes them differ from the rest of the garage/post-punk pack is their relentless tempo, that sexy Yorkshire accent & even more relentless tempo although they can tone down a bit with songs like "Riot Van" & fan favorite "Mardy Bum." Perfect album if you want to go mental.
Favorite tracks: A Certain Romance, I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor, Dancing Shoes.

Explosions In The Sky - Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever (2001) 
Truth be told, I became a fan of post-rock about two years ago but once I understood it, it's one of the best genres of music there is; this brings me to Explosions. They are a four-man orchestra that craft amazing songs that will evoke all kinds of emotions in you & you will always experience something new every time you play it. This album was my choice because out of all the five albums they released, somehow this one just gets me. 
Favorite tracks: Greet Death, Have You Passed Through This Night?, The Moon Is Down

 Couple - Top Of The Pop (2006)

I wanted to put in Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut but once I remembered Couple, there's no way Walcott's gonna get out of Cape Cod. "Happy, clappy but not crappy" aptly describes this band and their brand of power-pop is just a joy to behold; you just can't not dance to their music. Although the lyrics are cheesy, but hey who cares? This album is the best remedy when you're down. From "Now That I Can See" to "Are You Ready", your frown is guaranteed to turn into one big smile.

Favorite tracks: Now That I Can See, Rock N Roll, Tentang Kita 

 

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002)
Before they started to spew mediocre mainstream rubbish, Coldplay was actually a pretty legit band. "Parachutes" was a breakthrough phenomenon but I had to go with their sophomore effort as this album layed-down the "Coldplay sound", stamping their own genre on the music industry. From the thunderous opener "Politik" to the maniacal "A Rush of Blood to the Head", this is Coldplay at its peak.
Favorite tacks: Politik, Green Eyes, A Rush Of Blood To The Head. 
  
 











Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (2004)
I'm not a fan of dance music, but dance-able music, now that's an interesting proposition. Scotland's very own art-rock outfit Franz Ferdinand got me first sucked in to their infectious  rhythms with their debut single "Take Me Out" that started out in typical indie strumming fashion before breaking out into an "everybody move!" moment. Yup, even when I'm doing assignments on my laptop while listening to them, I'll still imagine shaking meself on the dancefloor.
Favorite tracks: Take Me Out, Darts Of Pleasure, 40'.

Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005)
Everyone's favorite animated band continued where they left-off from the self-title debut four years back & its just got better and better. Still having that gritty British feel to it, this album is a musicologist's wet dream with funk/rap ("Dirty Harry"), 80's-dub ("Last Living Souls") & dance ("DARE") mixed into the fray. They also had a "is it the music or are we high?" moment with their last three tracks that featured a spoken word ("Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head") proceeded by a haunting choir ("Don't Get Lost In Heaven" & "Demon Days").
Favorite tracks: Last Living Souls, Dirty Harry, DARE.

Zee Avi's "Honey Bee": Anti-Establishment Protest Song?

By now, I think you should know who Zee Avi is. If you don't, she's a Sarawakian singer/songwriter who gained fame by signing with Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records, slowly establishing herself in the American market. Her music can be described as a melange of acoustic, jazz & folk but what intrigues me is her lyrics. Her first single, Bitter Heart, is basically about a housewife worried that her husband is out fooling around with another woman.

I've decided to analyze another innocent looking song on her debut album, Honey Bee. My interpretation on the song is that its a quintessential non-conforming rebel/protest song which in a way blends in with my personality (the first song that defined me was Green Day's Minority). So without further a due, here's my verse-by-verse take on her ballad of fighting against the establishment.



I am a honey bee / Shunned off from the colony / And they won’t let me in. The bee has been made an outcast of her own group & banished forever from the hive. The thing is, why? A bee in a colony was born to do its specific job i.e. mainly to serve the queen but being kicked out shows that she has a problem with the hierarchy, possibly insubordination.

So I left the hive / They took away all my stripes / And broke off both my wings. She must did something serious on par with treason to the extent that the other bees made sure the identity of this rebel is stripped off and disassociated as far away from their colony.

So I’ll find another tree / And make the wind my friend / I’ll just sing with the birds /They’ll tell me secrets of the world. Now she is set on revenge; by being "friends" with the birds, she'll gather enough knowledge and connections to build a strong opposition with the other animals in the habitat.

But my other honey bee / Stuck where he doesn’t wanna be / Oh my darling honey bee / I’ll come save you / Even if it means I’ll have to face the queen. Now we have a new character in the frame: the bee's lover. It could have been a case of forbidden love whereby he should be mating with the queen but instead fell for the her. This could be the reason she was booted out: their liaison was uncovered by the other bees.

So I’ll come prepared / My new friends say they would help me / Get my loved one back. By now, this rebel has gathered enough friends to launch an assault on the hive in order to rescue her lover. Such a daring and risky act, but bold nonetheless.

They say it isn’t right / The bees have control of your mind / But I choose not to believe that. Apparently, the rebellion managed to rescue the lover but the birds had reported that he did not want to leave its community and they feared that it had been mind-controlled by its peers. However, the resolute rebel still has hope in its heart to somehow be together with her lover again.

So we’ll meet in the darkness of the night / And I’ll promise I will be there on time / We’ll be guided by my new friends the butterflies / Bring us back to our own little hive. I'm not too sure about these verses since it seems that he might not be brainwashed anymore (the power of love; a kiss to break the spell?). However, they secretly met each other (the lover was drugged by the butterflies perhaps?) and both were brought to their new hive which she made.

Oh my other honey bee / No longer stuck where he doesn’t wanna be / Oh my darling honey bee / I have saved you / And now that you’re with me / We can make our own honey. A happy ending as the bee is finally reunited with its lover who was being opressed under the colony's regime by mind-numbingly serving the queen. To rub salt on wound, this radical bunch of minority bees decided to start their own colony, hoping one day they could bring down the "evil establishment."

Now, do you get what I mean? It's romantic in a way that it kinda reminds me of the "love conquers all" theme but I was pretty much amused that this song is pretty much serious about fighting against the establishment portrayed by the all-powerful queen bee. Was the bee's actions justified in order to find her own happiness or should she be executed for committing such a heinous crime against her fellow bees?

It is a question for us to ponder.

Summer '09: Rockin' Around The Eastern Seaboard

Yes, this is a self-indulgent list about the bands I will be catching this summer since I'm one of the few remaining not to go back to Malaysia (bold indicates not confirmed yet).

5/30 - Coldplay @ Post-Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
6/05 - The Black Keys @ Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA
6/06 - Zee Avi @ Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA
6/22 - Camera Obscura @ TLA, Philadelphia, PA
6/30 - Explosions In The Sky @ Central Park, New York, NY
7/17 - Warped Tour @ Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
7/21 - Green Day @ Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
7/31 - All Points West @ Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ
8/12 - Blink 182 @ Hershey Pavilion, Hershey, PA

Here's to a long summer!