Malay Mail interviews Butterfingers’ front-man
As a closure to the “Below the Radar” column in the Malay Mail, journalist Adly Syairi Ramli saw it fitting to interview a major icon in the Malaysian modern rock scene, Emmett from Butterfingers. Read about the interview here. The band has been lauded by many as well as dissed by certain others but one cannot dispute the influence or impact this band has made, being the first “underground” band to sign for a major label, along with numerous other firsts. And if there’s one person able to give insights from both sides of the fence, it’s Emmett who’s made that transition.
One interesting point he made was how a lot of bands misconstrue the “underground” concept. “The underground scene for example is riding a high horse of rules and codes of ethics governing what they wear, what is cool, who is cool, what is real, what is fake.“ What some of them lack is the understanding that underground is just a phase that bands go through before moving on to mainstream. It is not a destination or a permanent state of being and bands that think otherwise are just creating excuses to stay within their comfort zone.
Nevertheless, I’m beginning to see a lotta bands that are kinda breaking the mold and looking at the big picture of things (one of them being Superbar lah….hehehe). We’d definitely welcome thoughts and shout-outs from bands that feel the same way i do, or not.
Quiksilver Revelation Tour 2006 at Sunway Lagoon
Last Saturday, we (Bala, Dinesh and me) decided to check out the event; which featured a lotta skate and surf action and a pretty good line up of Malaysian bands, courtesy of Quiksilver apparel and Maxis-Hotlink. I gotta say that the main band act for the day was kinda shocking. You only hafta look at the total lineup to realise how out of place the main act was….Pop Shuvit, Lied, Seven Collar T Shirt, Love Me Butch etc and ……..Click Five!!! I think you get the picture.
Anyway, we got there in time to check out Pop Shuvit open the evening set. And since there’ll probably be a lotta people raving about Pop Shuvit, which gave an excellent show that got the crowd all riled up, I’ll just leave it at that. Instead, our attention was more focused on the band that played right after - Lied.
Now this is a band that is starting to make waves (pun intended) within the scene, with an excellent line up; Adlin (played in tons of bands previously), Sen Kiat (Superbar), Matthew (Insulyna), Adam (Dragon Red) and Ajuon (ex-Superbar). And on Saturday, they belted tunes reminiscent of A Perfect Circle (Adlin kinda sounds like Maynard James Keenan, come to think of it!) to a responsive crowd who were pretty enthusiastic when they started throwing out copies of their CD. Or is it just a Malaysian thing to get excited about freebies? Well, they’d better pop the CD into their CD players and give it a listen.
Supporting the local indie scene
Came across an interesting posting on the Malaysian independent music scene here. It talks about how the often-used slogan “support your local music scene” may actually be detrimental to the scene in the long run. I believe it’s a timely rallying call for bands here to focus efforts things that matter (music that doesn’t suck, technique, professionalism, market savviness etc) rather than continuously lamenting about Mawi and American Idol hogging all the limelight and the listeners’ dollars
Superbar tracks available for download
Just got back to the office from my Sabah (Mt Kinabalu) trip and got online for the first time in a week and I figured I’d check out Music Canteen’s website. Whaddya know…..Superbar’s on the home screen as a new artiste download.
So my advice is, “Be a man! Do the right thing!” You can preview the tracks and if you like them, buy them at three bucks per track. Proceeds from these downloads shall be put to good use, though the concept of ‘good use’ is rather subjective.
Cheers!
(P.S. - Besides that, I should talk to the guys about changing the name of the band to just plain “Super” if we ever get to play in Sabah. I hope our future Sabah fans don’t kill me for saying this coz I’ve got nothing but respect for you guys!!)
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About
Superbar is a pop rock/power pop band based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fronted by sometime singer-songwriter Chak with lead guitarist Bala, eclectic rockers Superbar came together in 2004. Read More >> -
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