Don't ask me why I'm blogging during work - there's just basically nothing for me to do now. I'm just stuck here quality checking some Canto oldies album and watching the fruitless drying of my soaked socks and shoes. Life is great.
But definitely not better than the past weekend! Met up with my TK Horns on Saturday for a day of splurging (which I kinda regretted); Domino's Pizza, bowling, dinner at Manhattan Fish Market, and pool to end the day. Livin' the life, guys.
I should wear skinnies and my Dr. Marts together more often. They make my legs look long heheh.
Mad moves, yo.
Sunday was (finally) an outing with my Poly mates and I swear these guys never fail to make me laugh. Just Dance 2 + surround sound + dimsum + great company = everything else is irrelevant.
Next week's gonna be a really eventful one - Mayday Parade with Wenhui, DBS Black Top Party with Stef and Jon, Harry Potter movie marathon, The Big Groove. Crazily packed.
I love my Black Carbon Custom tee by the way! :3
Stay presh guys!
/I need money I need money I need money I need money I need money I need money I need money I really do. Hurray for pay coming in on Friday!~
I just watched the whole All Time Low Straight to DVD and homygawd they are one of the best punk bands around now no kidding.
Freaking amazing I love them so much. Seeing them live on day will be one of the greatest days of my life.
Speaking of All Time Low, happy 23rd birthday to you Jack Barakat! :) Keep being crazy on stage you are awesome! I will never understand how you can jump around like that without tearing your skinnies.
I booked my tickets for Mayday Parade's gig in Singapore! I'm going with Wenhui and this makes it her first rock band concert (virgin concert stealer strikes again). There's another band performing too called Eyes Set to Kill which is fronted by a female and they are a rock/emo band. I hope my ears don't burst. I just wish the tickets were cheaper though. Mayday Parade in Indonesia's ticket prices are like, 10bucks.
For those who don't know Mayday Parade they are the singers of Miserable At Best which is an amazing song
The guy who has the lower voice has left the band but it hasn't affected the band much. They released another album Anywhere But Here which is a pretty solid album as well too. They also just released an EP (which I haven't listened to yet) and a third album's coming out soon too. I really wanna buy their CDs but the last time I checked HMV they were going for like 38bucks/42bucks. What the heck.
Oh yeah, do check out DJ Masa's K-Pop Till the world Ends Mashup for the first half of 2011!
If you click the 'CC' button you can see that Stef and I did the Chinese translations. Hahaha it's quite funny watching the video with the captions. It's an awesome mash-up although I would have liked it better if Infinite was inside. :P Oh I still prefer the mash-up he did for last year's second half though! Can't wait for the next one!~
And speaking of Chinese, happy 30th birthday to Ella Chen from S.H.E!
She was my very first idol for obvious reasons. She was the most charismatic member of S.H.E and I totally aspired to be like her. She can sing, dance, act, host, she has a great personality to match too. My colleague was telling me that when he interviewed them, she was the only one to turn back to bid them goodbye. I love how sincere she is to people around her, including fans. I went for two S.H.E autograph sessions and her handshakes are always the firmest, even though her arm was injured once. Major love for this girl!
Stay happy Ella Chen Jia Hua! :)
_____________________________________
Round two of recording to finish our (Stef, Brenda and I) covers of Pinocchio and Mr. Taxi tomorrow. Hahaha I sound damn man in Mr. Taxi. MS B fighting!! ^^
I know that I'm one week late but it wouldn't hurt to update about it heh.
Got our (complimentary) tickets for the concert and had an invite to the exclusive Meet & Greet before the concert.
They re-used the wristband for the previous day's Meet & Greet lol.
Anyway, it got pushed back from 2.30pm to 5pm then to 6pm. So when we were there at 5pm..well let's just say that it was a complete waste of time. The blazing sun definitely didn't help. We spent the time camwhoring and running around to find the place for the meet and greet.
The Meet & Greet was basically a scam because unlike what was stated on the website, we did not get to take any photos, much less with our idols, did not get to interact with them, did not get any autographs from them, did not get our snacks and drinks, and it did not last 2.5hours.What a bummer. And too think we were so excited for it. We just sat there and watched as After School and MBLAQ stayed on the stage for awhile. It was like a freaking press conference. Pfft. We didn't even get to see T-ara! Keith and I were prepared to shout 'Eunjung neomu yeppeo'... :(
But I did win After School's autographed Virgin album and the HTW poster signed by them too. I guess it made up for the the failed Meet & Greet.
And because we were not allowed to take photos, this is only one we took LOL.
Then came the concert. Max Pavilion is a so much better venue to hold concerts compared to any of the EXPO halls. I remember K-Pop Night. Such horror. Anyway, our seats were at the back right hand corner of Cat 1 but we still got a reasonably good view.
And the order of appearance of artistes were: Orange Caramel, T-Max, After School, MBLAQ, T-ara. They were really strict with compact cameras though. No matter, pics next! Really lackluster - I must warn you.
Found lots of pics of MBLAQ on Tumblr.
The part where fangirls went mad.
Whoever took this, you are awesome! Cheondong!
Joon in unripped clothes.
G.O!
And then, it was T-ara who gathered the most screams! EUNJUNG!! Stef said out of all the artistes I shouted loudest for her. LOL I was really crazy by then.
It was definitely a fun night apart from the fail management and security and staff. The artistes' awesome performances made up for it!
Next stop, Paramore! (Or maybe Korean Music Wave if we're lucky again, heh)
On a side note: I'm so broke! But I am gonna buy my Dr. Martens this month no matter what. And I bought a tee from Paul's line of clothing too. Check his webby out here.
I'm so damn excited for it to arrive! Thank you so much Jet! Paul would be proud of me. :)
Not gonna lie, I'm a huge fan of All Time Low and I was really stoked for this fourth studio album. This is also their major label debut (Universal).
Let me first compare this album to the previous album. In my opinion this album is more pop-pish than Nothing Personal, but still pop punk nonetheless.
1. Do You Want Me (Dead)?
Simple plucking of an electric guitar at the beginning of the song while Alex starts singing. And just like any typical pop punk song, the drums and bass come in and the lead singer goes one octave higher. Short (it's only 2:46mins long) but great song to start the album.
2. I Feel Like Dancin'
The lead single from the album with a distinctively more pop-pish sound as compared to their usual stuff. Written by Alex Garskath and Rivers Cuomo (the lead singer of Weezer), it definitely has a different sound from their previous single, Lost in Stereo from their Nothing Personal album. Not all ATL fans will dig this song but I love it! I love the little random dialogues in the verses. Since when did pop punk start using words and phrases like, 'shawty', and 'everybody getting kinda crunk, I think some dude just grabbed my junk' though? But I'm not gonna deny, that's my favourite line in the whole song. Lol.
The music video for the song is really entertaining too and just like the song itself, it has lots of pop references, from Katy Perry, Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga, mocking the major sellouts in the pop industry. And it is so funny that Jack was totally agreeing with the 'selling sex' part but he gets the men instead of the women. Hahaha poor Jack! Really glad the boys are having fun doing their thing though!
P.S. Alex looks hella sexy at 1:25 and I really would buy that product. Hahaha.
3. Forget About It
Okay the guitar melody of this song has been stuck in head since I listened to it. This song's really catchy and there's this part after the second chorus where Alex speaks LOL I'm such a sucker for dialogues in songs. I immediately fell in love with this song once '1, 2, 3, 4!' came out. One of my highly recommended tracks from this album.
4. Guts
This song features Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds who does the harmonies in the song. I love it when bands with a male lead singer does collabs with a female singer but she seems a lil redundant in this song lol, just like Taylor Swift in Two is Better Than One. It's just that kind of song that All Time Low can perform without even needing to have a female singer with them, unlike Remembering Sunday.
And yup, as the title suggests, the songs kinda about courage (from what I understand by looking at the lyrics) and it's a good message so props to ATL for that.
5. Time Bomb
This was the first track that was leaked off the album! Alex leaked it onto the net and said that 'the sound is a bridge between Nothing Personal and Dirty Work'. This one is one of the stronger songs in the record and it still leans towards the punk rock genre. I really don't have anything else to say about this song except I really like it a lot.
6.Just The Way I'm Not
A typical crowd pumper song with 'Woah-ohs' and 'No-ohs' where the audience can sing shout along. I like the whole song in general but the bridge of the song is a bit of a letdown. I don't know, it just doesn't seem to match up to the rest of the song. I still think it's a good song though!
7. Under A Paper Moon
One of the more 'rock' songs in the album but not one of my favourite tracks. I'm just not really digging the tune of the song. Good job to Rian on the hi-hat there though.
8. Return the Favour
Has a similar sound to that of Under A Paper Moon but I kinda like this one, especially the acoustic guitar intro and the piano outro. It sounds like a song that I know though but I can't put a finger onto which song it is. Uh well.
9. No Idea
A string orchestra intro. Classy! I like the song in general but the pre-chorus sounds like the chorus of Maroon 5's Never Gonna Leave This Bed. I swear when I first heard it I almost sang to Never Gonna Leave This Bed. If I had to compare this song with one from Nothing Personal it'd be Too Much. Just one complaint, 'no idea' is sung wayyy too many times in the song. Gets a bit boring after a few listens.
10. A Daydream Away
The only ballad in the whole album. And I love it! I'm a sucker for ballads and I wished this album had more ballads. I really love this phrase 'I'll keep you a daydream away, just watch from a safe place so I never have to lose'. So sweet! Good song, but it definitely still loses out to Remembering Sunday. That's arguably the best song that All Time Low has.
11. That Girl
My favourite track of the album! It's catchy and it always makes me bop to it no matter how many times I listen to (I think I have listened to it at least 30 times today). I love how the song can still sound so happy even with a drug name and the word 'bitch' in there. And I can totally picture a music video for this song. I hope this song will be the next single. It deserves it! It is too cute! Heh.
12. Heroes
Okay the beginning of this song reminds me of F.T. Island's Marry Me. I love the changes in drum beats and rhythms, especially the second part of the second verse. Love the use of the toms to create a forward-driving kind of feel.
13. Get Down on Your Knees and Tell Me You Love Me
LOL okay am I the only one who thinks this title sounds a bit..wrong? Heh. I love the chorus of this song. Looking for something to headbang to? This is the song. Nice guitar/bass solo at the beginning too!
14. My Only One
I don't love this song but I don't hate it either. Really neutral to this song but I like the chorus :) And the hur-hur-hurt part before it. LOL.
15. Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass
HAH. I love the title. And true to its title, yes you can hear sleigh bells in there. A really catchy song. And I cracked up at the end of the song where there is dialogue. I really love it when bands inject humour and fun into their songs :)
Yup so I guess that's that. Not a better album than Nothing Personal but still a good one on its own. You can see how hardcore Hustlers are, ATL beat Adele on the iTunes charts! Sick!
And I really wanna see them live. Alex, Jack, Zack, Rian please come soon :'(
Happy 4th Anniversary to my favourite K-Pop band, FT Island!
It just seemed a while ago that I got into K-Pop and although they were not my first biases, my love for them skyrocketed after Rachel introduced their song 'Barae' to me. And after that I just started getting all their old songs and also getting to know more about the members. I remember Stef giving me a lesson on recognising them too hahaha.
I don't really have a lot to say, just that I wish them all the best. FT Island will never be complete without the emotional voice of Hongki, the awesome guitar skills of leader Jonghoon, the soothing vocals of bassist Jaejin, unique rapping of Seunghyun, amazing drumming skills and aegyo of maknae Minhwan, and of course, not forgetting ex-member Wonbin.
Stay happy forever OT5! :)
Current favourite jam from them:
My favourite K-Pop song. And they are not hand-syncing here yayy!
I love my Black Carbon Custom tee by the way! :3
For those who don't know Mayday Parade they are the singers of Miserable At Best which is an amazing song
They re-used the wristband for the previous day's Meet & Greet lol.
And because we were not allowed to take photos, this is only one we took LOL.
Joon in unripped clothes.
