Korn, finally unplugged!

I've just come across Korn's latest release, Korn UNplugged. I'm half way through listening to the album for the first time and really loving what they've finally done to the songs I grew up with.

From what I've heard so far, an interesting range of acoustic instruments, which otherwise would not be used in Korn's normal arrangements, creates a good contrast against the band's usually low, thumping, bassy kinda sound. In fact, I'm loving the way Korn maintains their signature super low bass guitar on this album, and at the same time have the melodic piano playing on top. This is particularly evident in 'Got the life'. An interesting use of some string instruments have also been introduced on this album, namely the violins and if I'm not mistaken, also the cello.

I'd also like to point out that John Davis's voice doesn't seem to feel the need to be inhibited by the fact that the accompanying music has been made much softer than the band's original versions of the songs. As far as the voices go, Korn is joined by Evanescence's Amy Lee in 'Freak on a Leash', who helps out with some beautiful harmonic lines. And despite having heard some of her desafinado live singing, I think she does a great job on this track. The contrast between John's and Amy's voices, together with the accompanying piano make the track my favourite off the album so far.

Another plus from this album is the band's cover of Radiohead's 'Creep'. Again, one of the songs I used to listen to all the time when I was growing up (I know I'm making myself sound like I had a rough time as a kid). John softens his voice up a lot for this track and it's nice to hear him sing in a different way. A nice change to his usually powerful, sharp-edged voice.

Now that I'm on the last track of the album, 'Throw me away', I shall say that this line-up satisfies my years of waiting for Korn to come out with an unplugged release. On this last track, I'm hearing some Japanese drums, which is an interesting approach to a track, of which the original version has a lot of synthesized beats and sounds. So all in all, Yes!!! Korn has an official unplugged album!


Track listing:

1. Blind
2. Hollow Life
3. Freak On A Leash feat. Amy Lee from Evanescence
4. Falling Away From Me
5. Creep
6. Love Song
7. Got The Life
8. Twisted Transistor
9. Coming Undone
10. Make Me Bad / In Between Days feat. The Cure
11. Throw Me Away

And for those who are actually interested in hearing some samples: http://www.korn.com/

One down, Three to go

So I got one exam down, which I must say actually went pretty well. Expecting something good out of this subject. I never really saw international economics as a doctrine I'd be too interested in but this subject has provided me a good insight into the principle and a good understanding of how things work, especially the foriegn exchange stuff. So that's cool. Ok, enough nerding.

I've been listening to a lot of Fergie's new album: Dutchess. Aside some of the really lame lyrics and her rather orthodox style, I like a lot of the songs on the album. There's quite a fair bit of Missy Elliott and Gwen Stafani showing through her work. May be a little bit too much? She also seems to have used a lot of the 'Run DMC style' rapping..may be because she wanna rap but she can't? (not saying anything bad about Run DMC) But overall, I think it's an album with a good variety of moods. And now I got 'London London London..' stuck in my head. I like it, tho.

Putting her music aside, I must say she's got one of the fittest bodies out there. Tight abs and bootiful. Well, that's if she really looks like how she does in the media, in real-life.

Things have been quite spooky in my pencil case lately. Usually I have two black uni-ball pens in there (as shown in the pic). One is almost empty and the other one's kinda new so it's quite full (you know how with uni-ball pens, you can see the amount of ink you have left inside?). The almost empty one I usually use for writing unimportant stuff, since the ink has become too inconsistent and the new one I use for when I want some solid text. Last night I wanted to write notes for the exams and wanted to use the new pen. I thought I had taken out the right one from the pencil case but then the ink started cutting off after a couple sentences. So I checked and there was no ink inside so I thought I must have taken out the wrong one. Then I took the other one out and started writing..same thing, ink started cutting off. So I took both pens out to look and they were both EMPTY!! BOTH!!! how??? It's like someone broke into my pencil case to drain out my new pen overnight. I checked and there was no ink stain or anything on the pencil case. Strange.

I went to buy a new black uni-ball Signo pen earlier today and when I was taking it out of the pencil case in the library, a PURPLE uni-ball pen fell out. Purple? I never bought a purple uni-ball pen or any purple pen altogether (despite it being my favourite colour when I was a kid). Where did it come from? I have no idea. Somebody get an exorcist for my pencil case. Or better yet, get Constantine!!

So my next exam is on Monday; International Management Process. And then another one on Thursday. I've pretty much been living at Baillieu, trying to get my readings done. Really looking forward to after all this semester's exams. Have a list of things I wanna do and so I can finally go skate with Candidette and Spaceman Spiff.

Meanwhile, I gotta get three chapters done tonight. 'Til next time...

Randomania

One of my favourite flash cartoons on the internet has to be David Firth's 'Salad Fingers'. While all the episodes take the meaning of weirdness to a whole new level, I LOVE IT..(not that being weird is a bad thing, right?). Being a solo artist, Firth boasts creativity allover his Salad Fingers episodes. The eerie music in the background, which he claims is based on samples from Boards of Canada, sets the vibe the cartoon emits very different from anything I've seen out there.

Here's the first episode called 'Spoons': An introduction to Mr. Fingers as he pays a small child a visit. And if you're in the mood for something peculiar, watch all seven episodes.

Firth's work is featured on the website: www.fat-pie.com. There you can find his other cartoon series, all guaranteed to be weird. A word of warning, tho..some of the episodes may leave you in sorrow for hours. So if gloomy cartoons doesn't sound like your cup of chocolate, avoid the 'Spoilsbury Toast Boy' and the 'Milkman' series.

+ + + + + + +

Has any of you ever felt that some of Pink's and the Veronicas' songs are suspiciously similar? Well, not only are Pink's 'U+Ur Hand' and the Veronica's '4ever' written by the same guy (Gottwald), the songs have pretty much been constructed with the exact same chords. Check out this cool vid on youtube.. Pink VS. Veronicas

Despite not being a big fan of pop music, I actually like both these two songs. Plus I think Pink's cool anyways..

+ + + + + + +

I think I'm used to the fact that I don't look like I'm from Thailand but I don't really know why I always get mistaken for a Korean. I'm saying this because lately I've been having random people on the streets coming up to ask if I'm Korean. Then when I say I'm not.. they just piss off.. Weirdos!!

Anyhoooo, I was just watching this US TV-series called 'Monk' by Andy Breckman, starring Tony Shalhoub. I had been seeing the ad on TV for the series so I thought I'd give it a try over tonight's dinner. Five minutes in and I found myself hee-hawing on the couch.

The story follows Detective Adrian Monk (Shalhoub), who has an extreme case of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. The funniest bits are when he breaks into his super anal rituals haha, among other funny things he does. I wonder what it'd be like to have to really work with a person like him.

+ + + + + + +

Tonight's dinner: Porterhouse with Tofu Rocket Salad (fusion cuisine, no?)

A Fever You Can't Sweat out

The first time I listened to 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out', I was taken back by the band's use of instruments pop punk/synth rock bands don't normally even think about using. This is only true for the second half of the album, tho. The 'Panic! At the Disco' album was pretty much divided into two halves, with an electronic intermission in between (rather plain and too long for an intermission and starts off like a cheesy dance music from 'A Night at the Roxbury').

The first half features synthesized beats and sounds, as well as some acoustic riffs in the background. The cool thing about it is in most tracks from this half, the synth bits would kick in when you least expect it. Like in 'The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage', what seems to be the bridge of the song suddenly became this upbeat cheesy electro beat, which I could almost see Jim (from American Pie) stripping to. And yes, their track names are damned long. Kinda cool, tho.

Now, the second half is where it gets really interesting. Old school instruments like the Vaudevillian piano, the accordion and the horns add a lil bit of magic to the sounds. I particularly liked their use of the strings in 'But It's Better If You Do' and 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies', featuring plugged violins and I think what must have been either violas or a cello.

My favourite track, tho was 'There's A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet', simply because it's got the Jazz essense to it. Well, how can it not? The track starts off with the drums doing the swing. Then, the voice comes in, accompanied with the perky piano. Not only that, there're bits in the song, where all instruments and vocals would stop so the drums can solo..Jazz sttyyyyllleeee..Definitely my favourite song of the album.

Let me just talk about the track names just a bit. According to Wikipedia, most tracks on the album reference works of Chuck Palahniuk (he wrote Fight Club!!), who is said to be the band's collective favorite author. More about that here.

All in all, despite it being a lil draining since all the tracks are upbeat together with high vocals, 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out' is a pretty interesting album. Another creative piece of work with a different choice of instruments used within the genre. Have a listen:
http://www.purevolume.com/panicatthedisco

The Bell and the Hammer

'The Bell and the Hammer' is one of those few albums I hear the first time and know it's gonna stay in my iTune library forever and ever ever. With all the differnt species and breeds of music there are these days, Indie is probably the genre 'This Day & Age' will fall most comfortably into.

The album starts off with 'Always straight ahead'. A song about a girl, who is afraid to fall in love, even though that's what she dreams of. In terms of the instrumentation, this song's got creativity written allover it. The shimmering harmonies at the start sets a serene vibe, which goes on for eight bars and then the coolest bass line comes in with the rest of the band. About this point, the beauty of the hi-hat comes out to play. I loooovvee it when bands pay attention to the hi-hat. It just shows how delicate they are with the way they make music. Another interesting thing about this song is each instrument jumps out to the front at times, throughout, just to say 'hey! look what I can do!'. As for the beautiful lyrics, it makes me feel sorry for people, who fear to love for whatever reason. It's quite sad...

The rest of the album offers glowing melodies , with gorgeous lyrics. Songs like 'Of Course We've All Seen the Sun', 'The Bell and the Hammer', and 'Second Star to the Right' are full of radiant piano and guitars , not to mention the soothing voice of the lead singer. 'The Bell and the Hammer' is definitely one of my favourite discoveries. See what you think: www.thisdayandagemusic.com

Anyways, today I bought a new book. Probably the first fiction I've bought in a long long time. The blurb reminded me of this other book, 'The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison' by Warren Fellows. That book was about this Farang guy, who was convicted of trafficking heroin between Thailand and Australia, and checked himself into the 'Bangkok Hilton'. The fact that I couldn't put that book down got me buying 'Bangkok Tattoo' as it instantly gave me the same sort of vibe. Here's what it's about:

'In District 8, the underbelly of Bangkok's crime world, a dramatically mutilated body is found in a hotel bedroom. It looks bad. It gets worse for detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep when the self-confessed murderer is the most successful 'working girl' at The Old Man's Club, a brothel owned jointly by Sonchai's mother and his boss, Police Colonel Vikorn. And it gets deadly when Sonchai, in an effort to get at the bizarre truth, is forced to run the gamut of Bangkok's drug-dealers, prositutes, bad cops, corrupt military generals, and the pitfalls of his own melting heart.'
-John Burdett

You see... Bangkok=sex and hookers?? Yea, may be. But don't other cities have all that too? But then I guess there's nowhere else, where you'll constantly get people coming up to you going 'u go spaycial sho? u want massaad? I take u...wely sheap...'. But that's only if you're a tourist. Anyways, I think Bangkok, or even Thailand holds this sort of reputation because people in the country's industry don't know how to blush. They are way less than embarrassed with what they do. Where else in the world can you find a living pingpong shooting machine? Or whatever else those girls can do with their poons.

I look forward to the upcoming nights, as I'll be taken to the Bangkok underworld, seeing bad cops and hookers (seeing as in seeing them on the streets!!)... may be I should take 'The Bell and the Hammer' with me too....