Gavin Degraw ,, please please strip

Gavin Degraw



ARGH! I'm such a sucker for these cheap irresistable sushi conveyor belt singer songwriters packages! But i just had to give Gavin the time of day, his album in 2002 has been a faithful hound in my ipod through bus rides, mrt scuffles and piss weak jogging attempts. Not to fear, I have 3 rock album requests I'll be listening to this week, so i promise more grit coming soon.

Meanwhile click on the player to check out "We belong together" and read on. ( Song playing is not yet a single, but i like it)



Gavin Degraw. I've waited 5 years for his sophomore effort and this self titled album is the fruit of that eternity. Verdict? IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME!!! It really should be named Chariot "The sequel". Back in 2002 when One tree hill decided to use " I don't want to be" as its title theme song, Gavin's tunes were instantly all over the airwaves and TV. I was a minor fan till he released "Chariot Stripped" in 2004. That was the 'lemak' that got me hooked to his cooking. To date, i have ranked it within my top 5 favorite acoustic albums of all time. It's seriously good how he stripped every song to reveal every weakness and strength in the album. From "Nice to meet you anyway" to "Chariot" to songs i have never cast more than a second listen to , each track was so intimate and honest, it was truly "stripped" ( click the player to enjoy 'belief' stripped)


Back to this album. Now, Gavin is a solid songwriter who has a very good sense of what he does well and how to push that across. He has a knack for hammering a chorus/melody into your head, it sticks for at least half a day. On his first single, "In love with a girl" he ctrl C and Vs the formula and churns out a song that sounds like a hybrid of "Nice to meet you anyway" and "I don't want to be". He returns to his blues / jazz compositions on more than 1 occasion and tracks like "Let it go" and "cheated on me" really deliver on all accounts. You really do feel for the fella and wonder if he needs some relationship therapy or self help book. From "Cheated on me " to " Next to me " to the above "Let it go". Mr Degraw is in some serious BGR trouble. I think that's why he keeps wearing hats , dude's losing his hair over chicks that made use of him, lied to him, cheated on him, left him etc etc


All in all , i really wanted more but I'm not unhappy with this new release. I'm just waiting for him to strip this album and redeem some of these song offerings. As they say at Hen parties .. "Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!"

Tom Baxter ( who?)

Tom Baxter



Thanks Dylan for the recommendation, really sorta the whole point of this blog really. That we can share new finds, exchange some good tunes and get all feel good. Tom baxter is really really good, the recipe reads as follows " Take 1 david gray, mix with some jeff buckley, shake well with some Van Morrison and drain well"

click the video to listen to "Better" , his first single off the album


Good aint it? Now we all need to hold hands and pray westlife does NOT get a hold of it and massacre the living shit outta the song. (is it just me of does the chorus sound like it could be some Eason Chan hit? try it, hum the chorus and replace the words with some random mandarin..) Got to love his MV concept, all sorts of oddballs in love. It's missing a pair though, where's mini me and his sex romp partner?? Now THATS an oddball sex tape i need to see just to know mini me carries a regular sized pickle on a mini sesame seed bun. I hear it's being sold to the same guy who distributed Paris Hilton's meat video. Who is this guy?? I want his job!

Back to the music, Having never heard of Baxter's work before, i was really pleasantly surprised that his songwriting is really well.. pleasant. His album has some well suprising touches that make it really stand out. For one, he has wrapped traditional acoustic folk songs with gypsy bests, indian / middle eastern instruments, tempo changes out of the blue, 4 min orchestra solos etc etc. It's really refreshing when he gets it spot on. Album title track "Skybound" is one that really makes you listen. I guzzled it on my way to Changi Airport on Saturday night and i hit the repeat button 4 times in a row. Now this song is 7 mins, so thats about half an hour of the SAME song. I just could not get the arrangement out of my head. It was that absorbing. (again, i'm adding the song on the audiobiblio playlist) The start, middle and end of the song could be 3 different songs yet it all comes together really well. This is where for me, the Jeff Buckley infuences show a little. Skybound takes you through various moods in the short 7 minutes. There is piano solo snuck near the bridge that really lends weight to a rising string section toward the end. Brilliant.

He does need to hit the stop button every now and then. For every 'skybound' he gets right, the album does contain a few self indulgent tracks where it does go abit south. All in all , i still must confess to being a huge new fan. I'm getting his back catalgoue as i type and im pretty sure my education of Mr baxter won't stop here.

Question : Who's got a better falsetto? Him or David Beckham?

Hellboy 2 new trailer kicks ASS!

Argh.. cannot wait! Loved Hellboy, last year december Universal released a full length trailer that was short on action high on tease. FINALLY a new trailer is out..


Btw, i typed HellOboy in my haste when searching for the hellboy update and well...all i can say is its amazing what a vowel can do ,


Hellboy!!!


and....


Helloboy......

urgh... make sure you buy the get the right action figure. Helloboy had to be heavily censored. You could poke an eye out with that thing!

Santogold is gold

Santogold



Hands to your heart people. What do you think this african american woman's music is all about. R&B? Hippity Hop? Maybe India Arie soul jazz? SHAME ON YOU! Put away all your racist stereotypes and prepare to get blown away by this alarming band. Front Woman Santi White has put together a style that i can only describe as "Missy Elliiot + M.I.A x 80s electro clash"

Listen to her first single "L.E.S artistes" to get a taste of what i'm talking about. This is the official music video



One of the stand out artistes of 2007 was M.I.A and the similarities are striking. Musicwise, they both have a very urban street game that lends itself very well to their song writing. Both have unconventional albums and both seem to have a niche creating beats and quirky genre crossing styles. M.I.A to me was always the delivery Missy Elliot never failed to show. Back when Missy was fresh, the world was waiting to see what she would be coming to hit us with after the success of "Under construction". However, Miss demeanour never showed up. Sure she had some nice hits but cmon.. We all remember "work it" and how it made the hippity hop world crash so joyously into dance clubs, pop radio, churches. When "paper planes"'s beat came out, my first reaction was Missy would have hired 50 cent to murder for that song.


Santogold is NOT as fresh as M.I.A nor as edgy but it is probably more mainstream. First single "L.E.S artistes" could be a Gwen Stefani hit, The chorus has such an 80s rock hook to it , you could almost imagine it being written by the B-52s. In fact, the 80s rock/folk influence is so strong throughout the album; i had to check the track listing numerous times just in case i had skipped to some "best of retro hits" compilation. It was like listening to some schizophrenic artiste. ( listen to "lights out" and "i'm a lady" to hear what i mean) But i must say, i absolutley loved the 80s pop stuff slightly more than the current singles. You get the feeling these simple 80s electro clash numbers sing more closely to who Santi White is about.


The 2nd single is just a dancer's dream. If i could pop, break and hop to the hip, i would be dancing my ass off this track. "Creator" has made it's way to Grey's anatomy and is currently flying up the UK charts. I love this song heaps but i can't help but compare it to the sensational M.I.A's 'paper planes'

Check out this guy doing some nice hopping to the hip to "Creator"




Right, make your way to HMV and give Ms Santi white a chance. And yes, she is a black woman with an indian sounding first name called Miss White who doesnt do "black" music. Like i said, curried sushi.

mr naughty peanut butter!

Hahahaah sorry guys. Nothing to do with music but this is just hilarious


catchphrase blooper - Watch more free videos



The icon looks like the planter "mr peanut butter"





The vid gave me the funnies la.. sorry i just had to post. Back to the music next post

"Snake Charmer" INDEED!! hahahha wonder which snake he was charming so furiously!!!