R.I.P Joe Yamanaka

 "Akira Yamanaka ( September 2, 1946 – August 7, 2011), better known as Joe Yamanaka, was a half Japanese and half American(black) singer, known both for his work with Flower Travellin' Band and as a solo musician. He was also close friends with Bob Marley, and later became the lead singer for The Wailers for around 5 years after Marley died. In March 2010 it was announced that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died from his cancer on August 7, 2011 less than a month before his 65th birthday."wikipedia



 I just knew about this awful news last night. I knew the Flower Travellin' Band's reunion activity had been put on halt because of Joe's condition-I thought it was throat cancer- the last time I googled them on the 'Net. Well i just wished him all the best and quite frankly forgotten all about him. It was last night when i wondered what happened to old Joe, and then was quite devastated after my first search result on Google-the wikipedia page- revealed that grim date in the bracket ...

 To be frank, I only familiar with his FTBs material. And I only know about FTB after watching that crazy Miike's movie Deadly Outlaw Rekka, which used FTB's epic 1971's album Satori as the entire soundtracks. Joe also acted in that movie as a cameo, and at the ending, both Joe and Yuya Uchida(founder, ex-FTB) watched at the camera and said

 

 Fucking sweet..

Joe was also a real life badass. There is this story of how FTB  went and charge for the ticket, something that is never happen in Japan at that time, early 70's I guessed. In other word, FTB was among the first band that charge for their show in the free-concert era Japan. Hell broke loose, and there was a little riot on the concert. Hideki Ishima(FTB guitarist) said in an interview that Joe quite single handedly shut the rioters up when he KOd one, a bit aggressive rioter-who was carrying a fucking spear, as the story goes- with a mean right straight. Seemed no one forgot to mention that Joe was an amateur boxer at that time, and he did went professional for quite some time.

All the while rocking a mean afro

So, in behalf of of untold millions that had the good fortune of being touched by your music, I thank you, and bid you a good farewell, Mr Akira "Joe" Yamanaka. A musician, an actor, a boxer, the original afro samurai, and most importantly, a friend.

Goodbye.



And fuck you cancer.

Fucking Orthomyxoviridae, and later, A Fan Rant of The Similarity between Asai Kenichi and Bob Dylan

I was down with flu for past few days..still had a running nose, maybe walking instead of running now but still bloody annoying. Maybe its the rainy nights, maybe its the dusts in my room..but i'm just saying you should blame them for the lack of post a'ight.


So a quick update from Asai Kenichi and Chiba Yusuke then. They were both-according to a quick glance on their website Sexy Stones Record and Rockin' Blues.com, respectively- pretty busy with tours promoting their latest album, as one could expect. However Asai Kenichi also just released his first 'children picture book' called Lets Study..

' Roulee & His Father's Short Story

For Children All of The World '

Some of them arts by Asai Kenichi..

 

 I remembered that story of how Asai Kenichi got into these artsy stuff, y'know the painting and guitar, when he is bedridden for almost a year after his motorcycle accident..I assume in his wild bosozoku days. 

Yeah, another point of similarity here I noted, between Asai Kenichi and the great Bob Dylan - the motorcycle accident. Though maybe of the different extreme here I guess; Benzie's accident is his starting point, while Dylan's 'alleged' accident... in a way, marked the end of his golden age. Dylan himself admitted this, saying that he had lost 'something' in that accident, in his songwriting faculty...saying again that afterward he 'need to consciously trying to achieve what he could done unconsciously before', or something to that effect. 

And Dylan also dabbled in painting stuff, and these here are some of them arts by Dylan;

Both are also known to enjoy manly bikes..

I always wished of getting one of these kind of bikes. They are abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous machines. I dont know why don't more people ride them. Most of the modern motorcycle design nowadays are drop dead fugly, with not even a shred of class or decency in it. For example, here in Malaysia the most popular 'big' bike is this pile of dog shit here;

Pictured,Yamaha RXZ- the ultimate symbol 

of douchebaggery in Malaysia

Well back to Benzie and Dylan. I found them both also kinda lookalike- like some of their their facial feature and those curly hairs-but this maybe the hallucination of an obsessed fan though.

                                                              

 Or is it?

Long Live Play

I've been fighting with my video games addiction for quite some time. Always the same bloody 

routine; 

1. thinking I want to stop playing for real 

2. dont touch a game for a week or two 

3. Thinking 'well a 30 minute session wont hurt nobody'

4. Get hook back for a month

5. Repeat step 1 

Then I saw this video and submit to my destiny. 

Gamer for Life.

Long Live Play!!

as seen on Blogserius

Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Trailer

Rockin Movies - Redline

"Redline is about the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. Only held once every five years, everyone wants to stake their claim to fame, including JP, a reckless dare-devil driver oblivious to speed limits with his ultra-customized car – all the while, organized crime and militaristic governments want to leverage the race to their own ends. Amongst the other elite rival drivers in the tournament, JP falls for the alluring Sonoshee – but will she prove his undoing, or can a high speed romance survive a mass destruction race?"

Same drill as before;

1. Go here : http://myasiancinema.com/j-movie-redline-2010/

2. Register or Log in

3. Download  and enjoy

Rockin Blues'd Malaysian Edition - The Butterfingers

The Butterfingers, from left to right;

• Kadak - Mohd Fakharudin Bin Mohd Bahar (Bass, Vocals)
• Emmett - Emmett Roslan Ishak (Vocals, Guitar, Violin)
• Loque - Khairil Ridzwan bin Anuar (Guitar, Samples, Vocals)
• Loko - Mohamad Hafiz (Drums)

"In 1993, while jamming at the Black Widow Studios in Kuala Lumpur, Loque and Kadak bumped into Emmett, who was there jamming (as a guitarist) with his band at the time, Grunge Dayz. Impressed with what he saw, Loque challenged Emmett to a ‘jamming showdown', after which they mutually decided to join skills and creativity, and form their own band. After drummer Kalai joined, Butterfingers was officially born by the end of 1993. With the final line up of Loque (songwriter, guitarist), Emmett (vocals, guitar, strings and lyricist), Kadak (bass) and Kalai (drums), Butterfingers hit the underground gig scene with a vengeance that sold out most of their shows and is described today as ‘the stuff of underground legends'." wikipedia


You couldn't have any credible or sane discussions about Malaysian rock scene without the mention of the name 'The Butterfingers'. True story mate...these guys were, still is, and still would be; the greatest rock band that Malaysia had ever produced. Widely considered as a grunge band, their earlier materials were so heavily influenced by the Seattle scene that the locals initially thought their first demo "1 goat, 2 apples and 16 oranges"  was an unreleased Nirvana album-Emmet does sound like Kurt Cobain it sometimes scare me.

The Chemistry(Between Us), one of the songs that pretty much sums

up the awesomeness of The Butterfingers

Malayneum, rock n roll with their trademark style - 
which the fans dubbed as the 'Butter' sound.

These guys are a freaking monster and messiah, or maybe an awesome combination of both; a mutated keris-wielding-six string-slinging-were-messiah...or something. They had spawned maybe thousands other(mostly insignificant) bands from their impressed fans up to this days. Our very own Nirvana, you could say- or maybe Sex Pistols or Blankey Jet City..

Like any other great band, The Butterfingers music are evolving. Or rather, Loque the mastermind's songwriting are maturing. No one could drive on teen angst forever right. So the second phase of The Butterfingers they wrote songs mostly in Malay language. Their last two albums Selamat Tinggal Dunia(Goodbye World) and Kembali(The Comeback) were 100% in Malay and sounded more experimental...some said more to Pink Floyd/Radiohead territory.

Cuai (Clumsy)

"In 2003, Emmett left to further his education in Canada, leaving the rest of the band to release and promote Selamat Tinggal Dunia without him. There were rumors of Butterfingers breaking up or melting away (helped by the title of the record itself which can be directly translated as Goodbye World). One week after Emmett returned to Malaysia, in 2006, it was Loque's turn leave, this time for Berkley College in Boston, where he continued writing music for the band.

2008 saw the release of their sophomore Malay album, "KEMBALI", which means 'the comeback', coincidentally timed with the Loque's return during his Fall break. During those rare few weeks together, the band worked at full capacity to play and promote what would be their last album together.

During Loque's hiatus, the high demand for Butterfingers, plus the success of "KEMBALI", which was well received by fans and industry alike, insisted that Emmett, Loko and Kadak continue to play show. They added famed guitarist and music producer, Greg Henderson to their temporary line-up. This quartet played a variety of shows, including Butterfingers regular headlining spot for the biggest annual music festival, Rock The World.

With Loque returning in January 2009, and Emmett relocating to Canada in May 2009, it was finally time for the boys to admit the truth and plan the band's farewell tour de force. For this, they chose the most prestigious venue open to live performances, Istana Budaya(Palace of Art), making Butterfingers the first independent band to play there. The four shows played over two days sold out long before the performances and were a huge success. It was an emotional send off for all: the people's band that played only for their love of music, and those who loved their music."

Loque continued to write songs, even while studying in Boston, under the moniker Monoloque. Upon his return to Malaysia, he released several tracks, which have been doing well, filling the void Butterfingers fans felt. Monoloque band, which the members including Kadak and Loko, continues to push the Malaysian music boundaries to new heights.

Monoloque singing a P. Ramlee's song for a

tribute album



Live at The House of Coco Tang, Nottingham

15Malaysia

15Malaysia is 15 short films about Malaysia featuring some of the country's coolest directors and personalities.

Rockin Blues'd Malaysian Edition - P. Ramlee

"Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr. P. Ramlee, (March 22, 1929 – May 29, 1973), born Teuku Zakaria bin Teuku Nyak Puteh; was a Malaysian film actor, director, singer, songwriter, composer, and producer. Due to his contributions to the movie and music industry and his literary work, he is often considered the icon of Malay entertainment in Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra (especially in Aceh due to his ancestry)."wikipedia


I had posted about music that fucking matters to me, but mostly stuff from Japan and America.. I dont think I posted much Brit bands here, I'll look into that matter in a bit. But now I wanna talk about the musics from MY country..which is a small country called Malaysia, in case you dont know.


Sure, most of the newer bands somewhat failed to ermm...grab my attention(or the world, for that matter) by the fucking balls, that's why I hunt for stuff outside see...But there is no denying that there are some persons throughout the history that had produced such work of arts of the highest quality here. One of the prime example is P. Ramlee- the pride and honour, I must add, of Malaysian cinematic and musical scene- who had directed over 60 movies and wrote over 390 songs.

To give you a glimpse of his talent, here is two clips from the 1962's Ibu Mertuaku(My Mother in-law), in which P. Ramlee directed, play the lead actor(a famous saxophonist turn blind), wrote the songs and sang them. And the film won him a specially created award just for him, The Most Versatile Talent award; on the 10th Asian Film Festival (Tokyo,1963). He cant even play the saxophone, but he acted so damn well that after this movie was released everybody, even nowadays,  thought he was an expert saxophonist.

Jeritan Batinku

Jangan Tinggal Daku

 P. Ramlee started humbly as a worker at the Malay Film Production(MFP) in Singapore, doing general chores like moving the camera, as the clipper boy and sometimes as extra in the movies. He got his major break when a newly employed Indian director L. Krishnan want P Ramlee to play as the lead on his 1950's Bakti. The movie was a hit and the audience started to take notice of the young P Ramlee. P Ramlee then starred on a couple more successful movies, growing more famous as an actor, singer and songwriter. At that time every directors on MFP want P Ramlee on their movie because it will be a guaranteed hit. At the height of his popularity he was given the trust to direct his first movie, the 1955 big hit  Penarek Becha (Trishaw Driver), making him the second Malay to ever become a director.

The Malaya movie scene at that time was really dominated by Hindustan movies from India. Indian movie was really in at that time that even most of the directors in MFP was brought from India. But P Ramlee's second movie Semerah Padi(1956) is the only local movie that manage to topple the Indian movies box-office at that time. For his third film Pancha Delima, he took on the scripts written by one of the Shaw Brothers(the big bosses of MFP) that no other directors want to take and turned it into a cinematic gold. On the preview of that movie-attended by the Shaw Brothers and all MFP directors (including P. Ramlee)-Run Run Shaw suddenly stopped the movie midway, demanding they turn on the lights in the preview room. Facing every directors under his employment he began to scold all the other established directors. Quoting on Ramli Kecik(P Ramlee's assistant), Run Run Shaw was so angry he said " You're all pussy directors...this young man could make such a good film, but you more experienced directors dare not to take on this script!"

That remark however, sown the seed of discontent among the other directors that would become one of the factors that ultimately being the demise of P. Ramlee. I suggested everybody to watched this brilliant documentary of P Ramlee on the History Channel, a classic story actually, of the rise of an unnamed boy to an idol, the fall of a genius by his own people, and the death of a broke and broken man that finally immortalized him, all in one man's lifetime.

A full english subbed movie of his last film Laxmana Do Re Mi( Warriors Do Re Mi) on Youtube..not the greatest piece from him, but this is the only one with eng sub on the 'tube I could find.

P Ramlee's Songs-The Collection

http://hotfile.com/dl/78187720/0368a91/P.RAMLEE_Disk_1.zip.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/78188005/d7bb5b3/P.RAMLEE_Disk_2.zip.html

Because a prose dont need to rhyme, amirite?

Thus endeth my first semester in the university;
T'was a trying time indeed,
with daily ritual of going up and down a
fuckingminimountain,
and a weekly one-hour-plus bus ride to the lab session.
And many a stupidly ill-scheduled extracurricular classes,
didst resulting in thy Narrator-
whose legendary lazyness and
his  "Aww, fuck it.." philosophy in life
which may or may not be well known;
-need to repeat that one stupid fucking course
sometime in the near future.


T'was many annoyances didst
he encounterth though,
for instance, there was this dickhead
-May the Devils gangbang thy soul, amen;
whose ungentlemanly misconduct of
stealing thy Narrator's wallet
did bluesth his heart
for a day or two.


T'was some smiles didst
he honestly enjoyeth though,
for instance, there is this sweet-ass lookin guitar
whose mere ownership of-
didst nearly carve a permanent grin
on thy Narrator's mug,
-though understandably this little fact
didst rage his mother
for a ten minutes or two.

A Samick Royale RL 1, with self added Chess Record logo.

So thy Narrator is now
facing a little break for-
a stretch of a month or something;
Thus he didst himself thinketh of
spending most of that time on his stupid blog
and immerse himself in the study of
the art of music generally,
and art of guitaring specifically..

However there are some facts
which may or may not be well known;
his  "Aww, fuck it.." philosophy in life
and his legendary lazyness-
held thy Narrator absolutely unaccountable
for any claims that he
had uttered
so casually.


-But he didst admits
that
spouting bullshit
in made up
Shakesperean
does had its own fun,
really..