Motley Tunes #10

Motley Tunes is a weekly segment featuring an assortment of 2-4 songs I find worth sharing.

It's holiday time for me, and that means listening to more music. I've been digging in to (and exhausting the discography of) bands like Weezer, the White Stripes and Pixies for sometime now, and am trying to learn Neutral Milk Hotel and Nirvana songs on my guitar; besides I haven't posted a Motley Tunes post in quite some time now - so yeah, long story short, this post will feature 5 songs instead! Yay!

1. Debaser by Pixies

The Pixies were the godfathers of alternative rock. Their jarring songs, incongruous lyrics and noisy purgative music gave them a massive underground appeal. Debaser, driven by a relentless bassline, jarring guitars and surreal lyrics (slicin' up eyeballs / I want you to know) delivered in anguish, is quintessential Pixies. Watch out for Francis Black screaming "I am un chien Andalusia" (lyrics inspired by a silent surrealist 1929 movie) on this one. 

2. Hello Operator by the White Stripes

Raw, stream-of-consciousness delivery with a pounding guitar playing against a wailing guitar and a middle section consisting of nothing but clicking noises which imitate an operator pressing buttons - Hello Operator is perhaps the White Stripes' most thought-out song. 

3. Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson

Probably the sexiest Jack Johnson song. So laid-back it'll make you fall out of your chairs. I wanna sing out these lyrics to someone someday :)

"Waking up too early
maybe we could sleep in 
making banana pancakes 
pretend like it's the weekend."

4. History Lesson - Part II by Minutemen

Uncompromising punk rock stalwarts Minutemen leave their trademark brutality and incoherence aside to give us this nostalgic autobiographical song that opens with the legendary line "Our band could be your life." 

5. El Scorcho by Weezer

The most slapstick Weezer song. Loose, self-deprecating and gauche, the song offers a cool twist to Weezer's favorite theme of earnest-geek-yearning-for-love (singing 'I think I'll be good for me if you'll be good for me'). The music video is weirdly funny too!

Favourite lyrics:

"But that's just a stupid dream that I won't realise
Cuz I can't even look in your eyes
Without shaking, and I ain't fakin',
I'll bring home the turkey if you'll bring home the bacon."

Crazy Elephant Blues

Recounting my virgin experience at Singapore's Rock n' Roll Blues haven Crazy Elephant, at its twentieth anniversary celebrations held on 07/12/14. 

Surrounded by formidable high-rise offices of the Central Business District, Clarke Quay, in contrast, is home to low-lying restaurants, bars, nightclubs. One active in the day, the other, abuzz with night owls. Nestled in one corner of the Quay, The Crazy Elephant Rock n' Roll Blues bar takes blues/rock aficionados on a nostalgic trip back in time.

I was privileged to go to the Elephant for their 20th anniversary celebrations with my buds Karan (who got us in, thanks to his, ahem, connections) and Dev. Being minors, we went there for the blues, not the booze (wink wink). Karan told me that this place had once hosted Deep Purple, that the in-house band covered Voodoo Chile every other time, that they had open jam sessions every Sunday - in short, I had high expectations of this place. Turns out they were going to be more than met.

Being its 20th anniversary, the alfresco area was flooded with people (most of them regulars apparently). We got our invitee's stickers and got in, and were given the best darn table the place had - right in front of the performers. The Elephant's interior is worth mentioning: wooden furnishing decorated with graffiti and dim yellow lighting, cramped, haphazard but warm, nostalgic; like an authentic recreation of a 60s garage band's jam den. The graffiti - ranging from simple tags such as 'XX was here' to song lyrics to drunken slurs (gibberish and profound) to an impressive psychedelic mural of a Crazy Elephant (pictured below) - added to the DIY ethic and the free-spiritedness of the Elephant.

The impressive psychedelic graffiti mural and the performing area

After we sat down a remarkable thing happened. A photographer asked us to pose, and this tall dude with long, blonde surfer-hair and a rockstar persona came by and photobombed us. The photo was printed onto these cards (pictured below), and I coyly went up to the dude later and gave one to him.

He turned out to be Claude Hay, the first performer of the night.

Claude's band includes a grand total of one person: himself. Besides being a one-man-band blues machine, he makes his own instruments (out of household articles as preposterous as a baking tray) and names them (Louise is made from a scrap bin lid, Stella from a baking tray). He plays the rhythm parts on a loop, has customized his guitars to sound like banjos, pianos and I even heard a bit of Sitar, rocks with the energy of a five-man band, and is totally phenomenal. Check him out below!

Most of all, he's extremely modest and to have him casually photobomb us like that was so, so cool of him.

Next up, we had another Australian band called the G. Nunan Band, who were equally hard rocking and talented - their frontman (Greg Nunan, duhh) even snapping a string or two while dishing out his blues. Oh, we had some food as well, which was tasty and all, but we were hungry for more music. We saw three more bands perform before we called it a long night. These bands were jam bands, some formed then and there, impromptu, made of bar regulars who did not want to be left behind in the festivities.

My friends asked me to watch out for the resident bassist Kamal and guitarist John Chee. They were awesome, Kamal with his slick groovy basslines and a very reserved John Chee playing sparely, giving other guest performers the limelight (check the two cover Voodoo Chile sometime in 2013 below: eargasmic).

For one, these jam bands surely turned up the volume. It got louder, looser - it was the alcohol doing the trick for them, probably. What was fascinating was that these were rather old people, who were minutes ago busy drinking and looking dull, but on strapping on their guitars gained an exuberance that spread infectiously through the sweet noise they made. Just looking at the facial contortions of this particular guy below who was super loud and made his guitar squeal and shred and shriek like a boss shows the passion and feeling these people played with. I'd like to have this passion for music when and if I get old :)

In the midst of the gaiety and the music, we met few people who were bizarrely impressed that three 17 year-olds were sitting through music that belonged to their grandparents' generation. One of them, a biker dude, showed us his prized tattoos featuring Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica and invited us to visit a metal themed biker bar nearby (we accepted his invitation with mild curiosity and fear). The other was a 47 year-old investment banker who called himself "the biggest Rolling Stones fan in the world", and said, with alcohol lingering in his breath, that he'd been to 14 of their concerts all over the world. In a fit of drunken profundity, he declared "The electronic bullshit teens listen to these days - It's all fucking bullshit" and we nodded our heads in agreement. He kept repeating how impressed he was, which told us how nice and how totally inebriated he was.

What a night! And just as we were about to leave, I saw a piece of graffiti on a shelf, which minted in chalk the final lines of the epic Stairway To Heaven - "To be a rock and not to roll." To its left was a shiny blue electric and a star within a star (a Hollywood walk of fame star maybe?) and together with the vintage wood, the whole setup seemed profound to me. A call to save, treasure and spread the holy music tradition of a bygone era. All I wanted to do was pick up the blue electric, plug it in, and play with what little proficiency I possess the ethereal intro of that song whose concluding lyrics said so much to me.

Perhaps the alcohol dispersed in the air in that clammy place had gotten into me. I was intoxicated, and it felt fabulous.

| TO BE A ROCK AND NOT TO ROLL |

Motley Tunes #9

Motley Tunes is a weekly segment featuring an assortment of 2-4 songs I find worth sharing.

1. Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie & The Banshees

Their first single: shiny, compact, a perfect post-punk song; was a shocker. Because it was too poppy, too perfect, given their otherwise uncompromising unconventional take on post-punk. Nevertheless, a brilliant if underrated song - faux Oriental riff (played edgily on a xylophone), Siouxsie's commanding vocals, sinister lyrics - concluded with a resounding gong to remind you just how Oriental it's trying to be.


2. November Rain by Guns N' Roses

Why? Because no November is complete without this epic pretentious melancholic masterpiece (thankfully) by a band otherwise known for foolhardy pretensions (just why, why the hell was Axl Rose braying like an ass on your trashy cover of Knocking On Heaven's Door?). Anyways, GnR do hold their shit here for 9 minutes (their only noteworthy achievement since Appetite For Destruction). Watch out for Slash's eargasmic solos on this one.

"Nothing lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
Nothing lasts forever 
In the cold november rain."

Rocking On The Shoulders Of Giants

How good music inspires more of the same.

There's a lot of 'borrowing' going around in the world of music -  riffs, chord progressions, melodies, other abstract but unmistakable ideas, styles, traits. Borrowing - accompanied usually by improvisation - as a mode of paying homage to one's idols. But there's acknowledgment, and there's imitation. The former respects the original musician while the latter (even if pursued with the noblest of intentions) disrespects. Nirvana borrowing from and building up on the Pixies' music was praised, but Vanilla Ice sampling Queen's 'Under Pressure' riff was dismissed as wannabe (although Ice Ice Baby was a success (his only one, thank God for that)). Imitation does have its plus sides though - there would be no Stayin' Alive without the Bee Gees starting off their careers as Beatles imitators. Where the line between paying homage and ripping off is drawn, is a matter of taste and does not really matter to me.

All I'm saying is, that too in three words - Influence progresses music. Good music is more often than not a product of the artists rocking on the shoulders of giants. Bands are seldom singular, one-of-a-kind; any individuality is not without the music these bands listened to, worshiped and studied in their nascent years creeping in in bits and pieces into their own music. Instead of brushing off these acts as imitative (Coldplay is just another Radiohead, what's so great about them), we must give them credit where credit is due (Coldplay did hold its own when Radiohead lost it in the late 2000s).

Enough of me yapping about influence. Let's hear it, see it cast its spell. I've outlined a 'chain of music' below - that traces just one, mind you, just one, vein of influence.

• Rumble by Link Wray

Power Chords. Distortion. A profound attitude. Vital elements in the arsenal of any hard rock guitarist - all trace back to this 150 second instrumental. Rumble's raw aggression made it the only instrumental song to be banned by radio stations for fear of inciting gang violence. Take that for badassery.

You know your song is influential if you have Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin) air-guitaring it circa 2010. If Pete Townsend (of The Who) says he "would have never picked up a guitar" if "it hadn't been for Link Wray and Rumble."

Which brings us to the first branch in our little chain - Led Zeppelin & The Who.

• "Heartbreaker" and "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin

For many, Led Zeppelin are synonymous with rock music. Their diverse canon, with its diverse influences ranges from bare-bones blues to rich folk to reggae rock to proto-metal. Their first four (modestly serialised Led Zeppelin I-IV) albums are part of every essential rock albums list you'll find. They drew heavily (at times bordering on plagiarism) from blues artists of their time - riffs, lyrics, melodies. Their attitude, their unabashed badassery, Page's in particular at least, would've been incomplete without Rumble.

Check out Heartbreaker and Immigrant Song, two LZ songs which, in my opinion. are remnants of Rumble infused into LZ's own brand of cock rock. An aggressive and potent mix of speed and power. 

That riff is classic Jimmy Page badassery. Also, formulaic power chords and distortion (thank you Wray!). 

A Viking folk tale told in a mystical, wailing tone against rumbling, advancing guitars and drums. 

• "My Generation" and "Who Are You" by The Who

If Led Zeppelin's canon is diverse, The Who's repertoire is eclectic. Their constant experimentation pushed the boundaries of rock and roll into the art rock and arena rock they settled into in their final years. Their wild, destructive live performances (which included guitar smashes) and lyrics which spoke for a generation perhaps gave them the moniker 'The Godfathers of Punk.' Their experimentation embrace of pop art in later years perhaps inspired the avant-garde and glam sensibilities of rock.

Their sheer mass makes it impossible to chart their influence fully, so let's enjoy two of their songs instead, again remnants of Rumble.

Lyrics which personified the then 'their generation' (what Nirvana did in the 90s and sadly, pop sellouts like Bieber are doing today), and form arguably the most concise description of youth rebellion - People try to put us d-down / Just because we g-g-get around / Things they do look awful c-c-cold / I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' bout my generation). The hyperactive bass, wild drums and stuttering vocals are mere embellishments.

While My Generation was one of their first, Who Are You? is one of their last songs. The former helped spawn punk rock, this one went on to impact more poppy and operatic acts (like Queen). 

Ah, branching gets even more convoluted now. Instead of going metalwards (must admit that I'm not too familiar with metal), lets make our way towards (and end this post at) alternative rock via Ramones, Queen and Nirvana (all influenced by Led Zeppelin & The Who in turn influenced by Link Wray - see how it grows?)

• "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones

The Who may have been the Godfathers of Punk, but the Ramones led the explosion of the genre in the 70s, mapping out a simple blueprint for punk rock - four chords, catchy tune, inane anti-establishment lyrics, black leather jackets - which would be followed for decades to come a la the Sex Pistols, Clash, Patti Smith, Green Day. 

• "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen

Queen were glam rockers, with a sound that belonged to stadiums, larger-than-life. To mention Queen in this context without mentioning Bohemian Rhapsody, to me, is unthinkable. They've poured their influences (heavy sound from LZ, avant-garde style from The Who), their own aesthetic of hard-rock and pseudo-classical music in these glorious six minutes. Though it doesn't reflect Queen's diversity, Rhapsody captures their essence.

• "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana

Nirvana were more than 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' - but as in the case of Queen & Bohemian Rhapsody - SLTS captures the essence of Nirvana. Soft verse - loud chorus - soft verse; snarly, detached vocals; carnal lyrics; power chords and distortion (and more of it). With Nirvana, Kurt Cobain wanted to be "totally Led Zeppelin in a way and then be totally extreme punk rock and then do real wimpy pop songs;" he finally settled on that and a more abrasive sound (borrowed from The Pixies, who will be featured in the next post) to give birth to grunge. As SLTS went global and Nirvana were labelled as "The Voice of Generation X" (a label they absolutely abhorred), Alternative Rock was redefined - propped up from the obscure underground (Pixies, The Smiths, REM) to the non-mainstream overground. 

Listen closely and you'll see similarities between Rumble (our start point) and SLTS (our end point) - both ominous, aggressive, with ample distortion. We seem to have come a full circle. Or have we?

This chain, mind you, is not exhaustive. It's exhausting (for me to compile), but NOT exhaustive. The influences linked above can be extended, looped and traced on and on until all of modern music is connected like a family tree. One that bears sweet sound for fruits. To add on a leaf, a flower, a twig to that behemoth of a tree is my humble aim. 

Rocking On The Shoulders Of Giants will return and the chart below will grow!

Chunk of influence: Size of box proportionate to relative impact

Oscillate Wildely is back!

Oscillate Wildely? Why the name (besides the obvious wordplay on Oscar Wilde and the Smiths' reference)?

Oscillations. Ups and Downs, To and Fros, Back and Forths. Ad infinitum. Flames rising up from a hearth, Waves hitting the shore, Wind making a flag flutter, the Earth on its axis. Elementary motion.

Assuming, for a split second, some semblance of order, an equilibrium, before being disturbed. Striving for order again. Disturbed yet again by forces beyond its control.
Ad infinitum.

A predictable destination, an unpredictable path.

Like the lives we live. Dynamic, fluctuating, inescapable.

Knowing where to go but not how to go there or knowing how to go there but not knowing where. Clinging to the past, worrying for the future, forgetting the present.

Enter wildness. Chaos. A deliberate injection of more randomness to mock the forces beyond our control. For the heck of it.

Clinging only to the present. Because its there, because it can be held on to, made interminable without worry for what's happened or what will.

Chaos in order, order in chaos.

Like Music. For what is music but pleasant sound and what is sound but wild oscillations of air?

Oscillate Wildely, friends!


Thank you for getting through that eccentric, esoteric, enigmatic twaddle. Here's announcing my return (after what can only be described as a hellish time - exams, more exams designed as projects, more exams of the physical and emotional kind...).

Here are some tracks to kickstart this return. Here's to music!

1. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire's first song off their debut album - Funeral. Brilliantly textured, reflective, and such pretty (though serious) lyrics!

2. Karma Police by Radiohead

A Radiohead classic! Felt like sharing it because I've been listening it a lot these days!

3. Buddy Holly by Weezer

Chill, laid-back song by a chill, laid-back band! Don't tell me the 'OO WEE OO I look just like Buddy Holly' bit isn't catchy!

'Til next time!

Motley Tunes #7

Motley Tunes is a weekly segment featuring an assortment of 2-4 songs I find worth sharing. 

1. Obstacle 1 by Interpol

A dour, melancholic retelling of a love that isn't what it once used to be. Beautiful.

"I wish I could eat the salt off of your lost faded lips 
We can cap the old times, make playing only logical harm"

"She puts the weights into my little heart."

2. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room by John Mayer

To have heavily blues-inspired musicians like John Mayer in today's day and age is a priceless gift to music. This song demonstrates why.

The Strokes - New York City Boys

On The Strokes, who paved the way for revivalist garage rock in the new millennium with their sterling 2001 debut Is This It, in the process becoming one of the biggest indie rock bands of the last decade.

New York City, the year 2000. The Twin Towers tower over the bustling city, far above the underground nightlife that swings to repetitive, unoriginal 80s dance, or mean ghettos populated with diamond-studded rappers, or the midtown Manhattan airwaves brimming with plastic boy band pop. Rock music is out of the picture, has been so since Sonic Youth, or perhaps even The Velvet Underground. The city is beckoning, beseeching someone new to take over. Five kids sporting the choicest of leather jackets swagger their way in. Right place, right time, with just the right music.

These brats knew they owned the goddamned scene all along. Heck, do they look like they care?

The explosion of The Strokes, first onto NYC's music scene and then the world rejuvenated the then directionless indie rock scene. Their sterling debut album, Is This It, WAS it. The media proclaimed them as the 'saviors of rock & roll.' The hype grew, so did the band's fan base, and with this some began to dismiss them as 'just another band' that would die amid the hype and fade into nothingness.

Messiahs or not, they were a bloody solid band. Self-assured without succumbing to arrogance. The 11 tracks on Is This It, packaged under a tight 36 minutes, are produced with unbelievable crispness and finesse. The songs explore the pleasures, frustrations and oddities of the rambunctious 'big city life' in the Big Apple. Frontman Julian Casablancas sings with calm aggression in a cool, detached way that has cocky written all over it. The album's chief appeal however, comes from the background wall of chugging guitars and mechanical drums. The Strokes layer basic riffs, beats and melodies to produce an efficient, minimalist and deceivingly simple sound. A sound which revived old-school garage rock (à la The Stooges, The Velvet Underground) and paved the way for a new wave which still continues to sweep the music world (à la Interpol, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys). 

Here's Is This It. Prepare to be charmed.

Essential tracks: Hard To Explain, Soma, Last Nite & Take It Or Leave It. 

Bands who release excellent first albums find it difficult to match expectations with their second outing. The Strokes decided to retain their signature sound for their second album Room on Fire, essentially conceiving a twin brother for Is This It. 11 tracks, 33 minutes, chugging rhythms, same old same old. They played safe, the album was successful, but the need to evolve was apparent, more so because the indie rock scene was booming and new bands were sprouting by the hour.

Their third album First Impressions of Earth saw them incorporate synthesizers into their vision of retro-rock (like many other bands of the time, The Killers for instance). The first five songs are everything a Strokes' fan could ever want from them; like the brilliant opener 'You Only Live Once' which blessed the YOLO trend way before it became hip. The rest of the album is a mess, gone is the airtight coherence and self-assuredness the Strokes were so oozing with back in the Is This It days.

The Strokes embraced YOLO before it became mainstream. If that isn't ubercool, what is?

Perhaps that's why the Strokes then took a long break, with Casablancas pursuing a solo project in the meantime. They returned with the inconsequential Angles in 2011 and a more welcome Comedown Machine in 2013. What was apparent was the Strokes' move to draw inspiration from their contemporaries (some of them in turn inspired by The Strokes) (snakes swallowing their own tails, anyone?). Their embracement of an ambient synth sound and Casablancas singing in falsetto (what in god's name, right?) was surprising too. Comedown Machine turned out be somewhat of a consolation, had throwbacks to Is This It and was lively and fresh in patches, Tap Out and One Way Trigger being a few.

On a personal note, The Strokes' music was the reason I started listening to more 00's indie rock (over 70s rock, which I was super into before I fell in love with Is This It). They sound so fresh, so alive (just like the big city life they sing about) that I find myself going back to listening their songs now and then just to reassure myself that good music still exists. And you're more likely to drown in the exuberance of their chiming guitars than in the Pacific Ocean. Drown away, my friends!


When The Strokes started out, Casablancas wanted them to sound like a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record. About fifteen years in, they seem to have departed from that vision in the quest to evolve and stand out. Unlike bands that peak early and diminish into insignificance, the Strokes seem to have prolonged a hit to a brick wall. Perhaps, for them, the only way ahead into the future is to look back into the past.