The Problem With Music

The Problem With Music

by Steve Albini

Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed. Nobody can see what’s printed on the contract. It’s too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybody’s eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there’s only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says “Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim again, please. Backstroke”. And he does of course.

Every major label involved in the hunt for new bands now has on staff a high-profile point man, an “A & R” rep who can present a comfortable face to any prospective band. The initials stand for “Artist and Repertoire.” because historically, the A & R staff would select artists to record music that they had also selected, out of an available pool of each. This is still the case, though not openly. These guys are universally young [about the same age as the bands being wooed], and nowadays they always have some obvious underground rock credibility flag they can wave.

Lyle Preslar, former guitarist for Minor Threat, is one of them. Terry Tolkin, former NY independent booking agent and assistant manager at Touch and Go is one of them. Al Smith, former soundman at CBGB is one of them. Mike Gitter, former editor of XXX fanzine and contributor to Rip, Kerrang and other lowbrow rags is one of them. Many of the annoying turds who used to staff college radio stations are in their ranks as well. There are several reasons A & R scouts are always young. The explanation usually copped-to is that the scout will be “hip to the current musical “scene.” A more important reason is that the bands will intuitively trust someone they think is a peer, and who speaks fondly of the same formative rock and roll experiences. The A & R person is the first person to make contact with the band, and as such is the first person to promise them the moon. Who better to promise them the moon than an idealistic young turk who expects to be calling the shots in a few years, and who has had no previous experience with a big record company. Hell, he’s as naive as the band he’s duping. When he tells them no one will interfere in their creative process, he probably even believes it. When he sits down with the band for the first time, over a plate of angel hair pasta, he can tell them with all sincerity that when they sign with company X, they’re really signing with him and he’s on their side. Remember that great gig I saw you at in ’85? Didn’t we have a blast. By now all rock bands are wise enough to be suspicious of music industry scum. There is a pervasive caricature in popular culture of a portly, middle aged ex-hipster talking a mile-a-minute, using outdated jargon and calling everybody “baby.” After meeting “their” A & R guy, the band will say to themselves and everyone else, “He’s not like a record company guy at all! He’s like one of us.” And they will be right. That’s one of the reasons he was hired.

These A & R guys are not allowed to write contracts. What they do is present the band with a letter of intent, or “deal memo,” which loosely states some terms, and affirms that the band will sign with the label once a contract has been agreed on. The spookiest thing about this harmless sounding little memo, is that it is, for all legal purposes, a binding document. That is, once the band signs it, they are under obligation to conclude a deal with the label. If the label presents them with a contract that the band don’t want to sign, all the label has to do is wait. There are a hundred other bands willing to sign the exact same contract, so the label is in a position of strength. These letters never have any terms of expiration, so the band remain bound by the deal memo until a contract is signed, no matter how long that takes. The band cannot sign to another laborer or even put out its own material unless they are released from their agreement, which never happens. Make no mistake about it: once a band has signed a letter of intent, they will either eventually sign a contract that suits the label or they will be destroyed.

One of my favorite bands was held hostage for the better part of two years by a slick young “He’s not like a label guy at all,” A & R rep, on the basis of such a deal memo. He had failed to come through on any of his promises [something he did with similar effect to another well-known band], and so the band wanted out. Another label expressed interest, but when the A & R man was asked to release the band, he said he would need money or points, or possibly both, before he would consider it. The new label was afraid the price would be too dear, and they said no thanks. On the cusp of making their signature album, an excellent band, humiliated, broke up from the stress and the many months of inactivity. There’s this band. They’re pretty ordinary, but they’re also pretty good, so they’ve attracted some attention. They’re signed to a moderate-sized “independent” label owned by a distribution company, and they have another two albums owed to the label. They’re a little ambitious. They’d like to get signed by a major label so they can have some security you know, get some good equipment, tour in a proper tour bus — nothing fancy, just a little reward for all the hard work. To that end, they got a manager. He knows some of the label guys, and he can shop their next project to all the right people. He takes his cut, sure, but it’s only 15%, and if he can get them signed then it’s money well spent. Anyways, it doesn’t cost them anything if it doesn’t work. 15% of nothing isn’t much! One day an A & R scout calls them, says he’s ‘been following them for a while now, and when their manager mentioned them to him, it just “clicked.” Would they like to meet with him about the possibility of working out a deal with his label? Wow. Big Break time. They meet the guy, and y’know what — he’s not what they expected from a label guy. He’s young and dresses pretty much like the band does. He knows all their favorite bands. He’s like one of them. He tells them he wants to go to bat for them, to try to get them everything they want. He says anything is possible with the right attitude.

They conclude the evening by taking home a copy of a deal memo they wrote out and signed on the spot. The A & R guy was full of great ideas, even talked about using a name producer. Butch Vig is out of the question-he wants 100 g’s and three points, but they can get Don Fleming for $30,000 plus three points. Even that’s a little steep, so maybe they’ll go with that guy who used to be in David Letterman’s band. He only wants three points. Or they can have just anybody record it (like Warton Tiers, maybe– cost you 5 or 7 grand] and have Andy Wallace remix it for 4 grand a track plus 2 points. It was a lot to think about. Well, they like this guy and they trust him. Besides, they already signed the deal memo. He must have been serious about wanting them to sign. They break the news to their current label, and the label manager says he wants them to succeed, so they have his blessing. He will need to be compensated, of course, for the remaining albums left on their contract, but he’ll work it out with the label himself.

Sub Pop made millions from selling off Nirvana, and Twin Tone hasn’t done bad either: 50 grand for the Babes and 60 grand for the Poster Children– without having to sell a single additional record. It’ll be something modest. The new label doesn’t mind, so long as it’s recoupable out of royalties. Well, they get the final contract, and it’s not quite what they expected. They figure it’s better to be safe than sorry and they turn it over to a lawyer–one who says he’s experienced in entertainment law and he hammers out a few bugs. They’re still not sure about it, but the lawyer says he’s seen a lot of contracts, and theirs is pretty good. They’ll be great royalty: 13% [less a 1O% packaging deduction]. Wasn’t it Buffalo Tom that were only getting 12% less 10? Whatever. The old label only wants 50 grand, an no points. Hell, Sub Pop got 3 points when they let Nirvana go. They’re signed for four years, with options on each year, for a total of over a million dollars! That’s a lot of money in any man’s English. The first year’s advance alone is $250,000. Just think about it, a quarter million, just for being in a rock band! Their manager thinks it’s a great deal, especially the large advance. Besides, he knows a publishing company that will take the band on if they get signed, and even give them an advance of 20 grand, so they’ll be making that money too. The manager says publishing is pretty mysterious, and nobody really knows where all the money comes from, but the lawyer can look that contract over too. Hell, it’s free money. Their booking agent is excited about the band signing to a major. He says they can maybe average $1,000 or $2,000 a night from now on. That’s enough to justify a five week tour, and with tour support, they can use a proper crew, buy some good equipment and even get a tour bus! Buses are pretty expensive, but if you figure in the price of a hotel room for everybody In the band and crew, they’re actually about the same cost. Some bands like Therapy? and Sloan and Stereolab use buses on their tours even when they’re getting paid only a couple hundred bucks a night, and this tour should earn at least a grand or two every night. It’ll be worth it. The band will be more comfortable and will play better.

The agent says a band on a major label can get a merchandising company to pay them an advance on T-shirt sales! ridiculous! There’s a gold mine here! The lawyer Should look over the merchandising contract, just to be safe. They get drunk at the signing party. Polaroids are taken and everybody looks thrilled. The label picked them up in a limo. They decided to go with the producer who used to be in Letterman’s band. He had these technicians come in and tune the drums for them and tweak their amps and guitars. He had a guy bring in a slew of expensive old “vintage” microphones. Boy, were they “warm.” He even had a guy come in and check the phase of all the equipment in the control room! Boy, was he professional. He used a bunch of equipment on them and by the end of it, they all agreed that it sounded very “punchy,” yet “warm.” All that hard work paid off. With the help of a video, the album went like hotcakes! They sold a quarter million copies! Here is the math that will explain just how fucked they are: These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. There’s no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. income is bold and underlined, expenses are not.

Advance:	$ 250,000
Manager’s cut:	$ 37,500
Legal fees:	$ 10,000
Recording Budget:	$ 150,000
Producer’s advance:	$ 50,000
Studio fee:	$ 52,500
Drum Amp, Mic and Phase “Doctors”:	$ 3,000
Recording tape:	$ 8,000
Equipment rental:	$ 5,000
Cartage and Transportation:	$ 5,000
Lodgings while in studio:	$ 10,000
Catering:	$ 3,000
Mastering:	$ 10,000
Tape copies, reference CDs, shipping tapes, misc. expenses:	$ 2,000
Video budget:	$ 30,000
Cameras:	$ 8,000
Crew:	$ 5,000
Processing and transfers:	$ 3,000
Off-line:	$ 2,000
On-line editing:	$ 3,000
Catering:	$ 1,000
Stage and construction:	$ 3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation:	$ 2,000
Director’s fee:	$ 3,000
Album Artwork:	$ 5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication:	$ 2,000
Band fund:	$ 15,000
New fancy professional drum kit:	$ 5,000
New fancy professional guitars [2]:	$ 3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs [2]:	$ 4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar:	$ 1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp:	$ 1,000
Rehearsal space rental:	$ 500
Big blowout party for their friends:	$ 500
Tour expense [5 weeks]:	$ 50,875
Bus:	$ 25,000
Crew [3]:	$ 7,500
Food and per diems:	$ 7,875
Fuel:	$ 3,000
Consumable supplies:	$ 3,500
Wardrobe:	$ 1,000
Promotion:	$ 3,000
Tour gross income:	$ 50,000
Agent’s cut:	$ 7,500
Manager’s cut:	$ 7,500
Merchandising advance:	$ 20,000
Manager’s cut:	$ 3,000
Lawyer’s fee:	$ 1,000
Publishing advance:	$ 20,000
Manager’s cut:	$ 3,000
Lawyer’s fee:	$ 1,000
Record sales:	250,000 @ $12 =

$3,000,000

Gross retail revenue Royalty:

[13% of 90% of retail]:
$ 351,000

Less advance:

$ 250,000

Producer’s points:

[3% less $50,000 advance]:
$ 40,000

Promotional budget:

$ 25,000

Recoupable buyout from previous label:

$ 50,000

Net royalty: $ -14,000

Record company income:



Record wholesale price:

$6.50 x 250,000 =
$1,625,000 gross income

Artist Royalties:

$ 351,000

Deficit from royalties:

$ 14,000

Manufacturing, packaging and distribution:

@ $2.20 per record: $ 550,000

Gross profit:

$ 710,000



The Balance Sheet: This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.



Record company:

$ 710,000

Producer:

$ 90,000

Manager:

$ 51,000

Studio:

$ 52,500

Previous label:

$ 50,000

Agent:

$ 7,500

Lawyer:

$ 12,000

Band member net income each:
$ 4,031.25

The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month. The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never “recouped,” the band will have no leverage, and will oblige. The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won’t have earned any royalties from their T-shirts yet. Maybe the T-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys. Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.

Steve Albini is an independent and corporate rock record producer most widely known for having produced Nirvana’s “In Utero”.
Original source

Cleanin up the mess

Alright, I'm back in the game..so first thing first, need to sort out all of them dead links. All my Megaupload links are dead, sadly, and Filesonic and Fileserve pulled the plug a couple of days back, only allowing people to download stuff that they personally upload on the 'Net. Fucking reduced to nothing more than a personal online storage, what a shame...if one can get past the stupidity of spending time to upload something on the internet so they can spend more time to fucking download it back sometime later. Never heard of external hard drive, ye cunts?

 I do get the shivers though, when I thought about what will happen if they do shut down all the filesharing sites? An unlikely scenario I agree, as more new sites will just be born from the ashes, but just imagine the horror of, say, if Rapidshare and Mediafire also kick the bucket. Such a waste, all those efforts of countless generations of  my piratical brethren gone to naught in just a couple of minutes. I knew a website I used to frequent to download most of my asian movies, Myac.Asia, which practically crippled and killed the minute they put the bullets in the back of poor Megaupload's head. In a broken-hearted announcement the devastated admin claimed he(or she) had lost about over 15,000 files, the efforts of 3 years of uploading stuff to the masses. If that happened to me, man, I'd be fucking suicidal...homicidal, even.

 But what the hell man, that's life. To quote Muddy Water's character in the magnificent Cadillac Record;

" You and me not gonna wake up every morning and get everything we want. Mostly we got to take what come. And half the time, that's gonna be a bunch of bullshit."

 Best we learn to live with the bullshits, I guess, survival of the fittest and all that...

 But first thing first, need to clean up the dead links and upload new ones. I need to personally upload everything, for good measure, instead of ripping someone else links. Now that gonna take a little while, especially all the big concerts and suchlike. . So, in the mean time, here is a rocking Vader demonstrating the awesomeness of the dark side of music.

Really?

I took a break for a fucking month?!

I am ashamed man, really...I do. So in my way of apologizing, I'm gonna pull out something from my private reserves.
Just you wait...

I used to write new posts, then I took an arrow to the knee..

Guys, I was Skyrimmed....
That damn game took a coupla weeks from my life, and I dont think I saw even half of that game. In the end I decided to uninstall the damn game for a while or imma screw up this semester for sure. Need a couple of days to find my groove to write back...

End rant
............

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?

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..


 

Life forced an ugly lesson on you sometimes

And some fucker just stole my wallet yesterday evening while I was taking a nap. Last I remembered I put it on my study table. The funny thing is 2 days before that I lost my spoon, was fucking annoyed that I am forced to use the fork to prepare my instant coffee. Yesterday the spoon magically reappeared and the wallet magically don't appear anymore. So I just suppressed the urge to kill as best as I can(fucking lock away my butterfly knife and everything) and look around the room in case I misplaced it, with the help of two, three concerned soul..but nil, nada..

So the list of suspects from the biggest to smallest are; the people from the diploma program, people that know me or my roommate, my housemates and the last my own roommate..but the fuck could i do, ask and search every single soul? Motherfucker got the nerve to steal I hope he got the brain to conceal it. I really don't like to think what will happen to the sorry chap if I caught him..

 ................

...sigh


Finally hit the acceptance stage of the Kübler-Ross model, that 5 stages of grief(yeah, The Simpson taught me that):

i. Denial-

 "My wallet ain't lost..I just misplaced it somewhere. Maybe it want to play hide n seek..what a cute little wallet."

ii. Anger-
 "FUCK!!! WHERES MAH WALLET!!! ARGH!!!

iii. Bargaining-
"..stupid thief, why dont he just take the damn spoon and leave my wallet alone."

iv. Depression-
"...fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck...."

v.  Acceptance-
" Aww fuck it. He just want the money, the wallet is an evidence. Maybe I'll found it in a dumpster somewhere.."




And still life goes on. I ain't even mad anymore. I had survived a fuckup of a much greater magnitude, one that make this look like an itch on the ass only, and still live just fine. Just kinda annoyed I need to replace all my documents in it, my I.C and driving license all that shit. And hear my mom nag me about this..

..ahh fuck it.

and here is some soul-soothing song i used to diffuse my rage

Some Rocking Pics from Bersih 2.0, 9th July 2011

 A portion of the protestors

 

National Laureate A. Samad Said

"THIIIS IS MAH COUNTRYYYY!!"

"HAHAHA...send in the boys.."

'The Boys'

Like a boss

In an online video coverage, this guy then proceed to imitate the 

pose of a dog pissing in front of the police (implying police='obedient' dogs)

-"Patriot wont allow you to destroy this land, O Ber"shit"-

The 'Patriots'-you can tell their level of mentality with that lame wordplay

2 friends praying in the middle of the street. It is said all the nearby mosques

were blocked.

This one is when the police attacked(water cannon/tear gas) protestors taking

refugee in the nearby private hospitals compound. Police attack, in a 

hospital..wtf man. 

                                        

  However my favorite set of images are of this one old Chinese lady called Anne:

Anne, 65, from Setapak, took a bus ride down to KL, ALONE, in support of the rally. She was stopped 4 times, being asked her IC, and questioned by the police on why she's wearing yellow. "why can't I wear yellow?" was her reply. She didn't know what time the rally was scheduled to start, she didn't know where, she has no one with her; all she knew was to get down to KL, and stand for what she believes in. Anne teaches English in government schools for about 35 years (if i remember correctly). but her passion is really singing and dancing; and what she values most in her life now is freedom.

On that day she had been hit by the tear gas 4 times
and blue colored chemical water once..

Anne has rallied in Bersih 2007. She was disappointed as to why no one else was wearing yellow that day. we said chill lah.. that's cuz if we do, we'd be stopped by the cops even before we get the chance to enter KL. "it's so sad.. it's so sad that the police are treating our rakyats like these." "When you come to rallies, there's a spirit of unity... something i cannot describe... when everyone is united for a cause. you don't even get this sort of unity in church."

The first thing she asked when she sat on our table, "what are you guys doing here?"

She left me with a question that still resides in my heart. now may i impose on you to think about it. "Why do we have to feel so scared (and threatened) in our own home land.. and by own countrymen?"

*****************

"When the crowds were expelled by FRU with water cannons and tear gas, the crowds scattered around. Someone advice Madam Anne to run for her life, but she said:

" All I want is just a peaceful petition,why wouldn't anyone listen? We cannot run away,if we run, how could we even walk on our future path?"

-source (her Facebook fanpage-named The Malaysian Lady of Liberty)-


 

 Meanwhile, the real 'First Lady' of Malaysia had just bought a pretty new ring worth RM 24.4 million 
using, I assume, the taxpayers money.
Her body is 4 times bigger than Anne,
but I bet her heart is 10 times smaller.
And I ain't even tainting my blog with posting her picture

Needless to say, history was written that day.

More pics

It had been a long fucking time, i know.

It had been a long fucking time, I know..

It just that the last couple of weeks had been very, very hectic. I was choked with a fuckload of assignments and tests, and I kinda got overwhelmed by the sheer overload of it all. And that can kill anybody's mood to write anything ...or at least, just me.

And it is really not helping when all my attempts to download from mediafire return with a goddamn "Network Error" or "temporary error" screen. Well, not all -more to like 85% of the time- but still..fuck, right. I had been using Mediafire as my main downloading option for a couple of years now, favoring it for its speed, parallel download ability and no waiting time between downloads-the benefits you had to pay for with other download sites. And now its dead for me, killed either by the university or the more sinister force, the stupid MCMC. The MCMC, stands for "Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Comission", had already blocked 10 filesharing sites in Malaysia under the pretense of "to protect public revenue and preserve national security under Section 263 (2) of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998".

But last i checked mediafire aint on their deathlist.

************************************************************************************************

And yesterday, the fateful 9th of July, there was this massive peaceful rally in Kuala Lumpur-BERSIH 2.0(literally, clean 2.0), protesting for a more clear,tranparent election, and some other demands. What started as a coalition of some number of NGOs turned somewhat political when the opposition party fully back the rally. And the government shat their pants, sprouting bullshits like the rally is politically motivated and declared it illegal, while using all their influences-the police and mainstream medias-to condemn the rally. The pro-government sides even started a new organization-Patriot- and threatening to hold a counter rally that day.

According to the plan, the Bersih rally participants are gonna met up in several strategic places in the city center and then peacefully march to the Istana Negara(National Palace) and pass the memorandum to the Sultan. But the government blew everything out of proportion, saying chaos and violences and "possible anarchy" will surely happen on the street that day-and said they will only allow it if it is hold in a stadium or something. So the rally organizer held a meeting with the Sultan and after a discussion, said"OK, we'll take the stadium offer". But then, at the last moment, the government reneged on its offer, saying that the rally can use a stadium but not the one in Kuala Lumpur, and refused to grant the permit to use that stadium. And Bersih answered that with a collective "Fuck You!".

Although the organizer repeatedly claim that the rally is a peaceful one, even back it up with the record of the first Bersih rally-where the only violence came from the police- the police, under the order of government, issued a total lockdown on Kuala Lumpur on that day. Roadblocks are being held on most of the main streets to the city center, resulting in one of the most legendary traffic jams in recent history. Several public transports are stopped. The riot squads, the FRU(Federal Reserve Units) are mobilised with their water cannons and tear gasses.

The rally supposedly start at 2.00 pm until 4.00 pm, but the police had already start searching and arresting civilians since the morning. Most of them were caught just because sporting, or hiding in their bag, the yellow Bersih T-Shirt-under the charges of "attempt to cause social unrest" or something. So to cut the story short, at 2.00 pm the civilians started to gather at different spots designated, with the total number of maybe 15-18k people(I dont know, there are fuckloads of people allright. Some even said there were some 50 k that day). There were some actions, the police fired the water cannon(with chemicals) and tear gasses on the crowds, but maybe the heavy rain that evening help lessened the effects of those irritant-chemical weapons a little. The crowds reacted only with more 'Bersih' and 'Clean the election' chants and singing the national anthem, "Negaraku".

In the end, after braving chemical waters and gasses and roadblocks, part of the protestors managed to arrive to Stadium Merdeka. The stadium was chosen for its historical value, it was the stadium in which the Declaration of Malaysian Independence was held in August 1957. After doing their rally..thingy..outside the stadium, the crowds dispersed peacefully on the order of the protest organizer some time after 4.00 pm. A smaller, separate group led by National Laureate A. Samad Said walked to Istana Negara to hand over the petition only to be blocked by the police which refused to let them pass. The petition handing was unsuccessful, though the Sultan himself agreed to receive the memorandum.


The police confirmed the arrest of more than 1400 people, and at least one death of a senior civilian, one 58 years old Baharuddin. He got stroke(or something) after been teargassed by the police. The protests are also held by Malaysian on other parts of the world such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, London and Australia without much fuss from their polices.

The 'counter rally' by the red-shirt wearing Patriot only managed to gather up some 500 persons for their cause and marched for 200m and then blocked by the police and dispersed quietly, stating they had "accomplished their objective and won the moral victory"...moral victory my ass. They handed their red shirt to anyone(with also a single note of RM50) so some of their 'members' that day are Bangladesh and Pakistani foreigners..and they dare used the name PATRIOT. What a bunch of fucking clowns..

All the mainstream medias then aired stories like they were violence started by the protestors and the total attendances were just 5-6000 people only. There was even this little story of how the police found a couple of bags with machetes, molotov cocktails(in fuckin plastic bottles,haha) and Bersih shirts 'hidden'. But after the people laughed at the very obviously lame setup, I never heard any mention of that story.

I did not attend the protest actually, eventhough my university is kinda near(like 45minutes  bus travel). The government had already released a notice saying all government workers and students under government universities cant attend the gathering. If any were caught there, they will be immediately expelled from their respective institute. Even my mom, a primary school teacher, called me the night before and advised me not to go there. My university, in order to prevent any of its student go to the protest, rescheduled any remaining test to be held on that fateful Saturday. Well at least I said 'Fuck Off' to my test and monitor the protest's progression from the safety screen of my laptop's monitor.

It was the least I could do.
I am ashamed.

Bersih 2.0 Protest Timeline

Part 1

Part 2

*For the record, the ruling party had been in power since the Independence(1957).