If you want to hear the raw vocals and raw musics that the New Yorkers have on their first album, you’ll totally miss them out on Mosquito, as Karen O said to NME “So much feeling went into this record, it was the rope ladder thrown down into the ditch for us to climb up and dust ourselves off.” This fourth album actually gives you the second version of ‘It’s Blitz!’. The first track of this song is ‘Sacrilege’, it tells about a love story, well, we don’t want to discuss about the materials and the meanings of this song, but what is really interesting is Karen O’s idea to add gospel choirs at the end of the song, which gives a sacred-like ambiance or more religious’ point of view. For the next track, ‘Subway’, gives a gloomy with a sound of a subway train. The fact that Karen O wrote this song because she thinks the band should have a song that describes about New York, is not really delivering the point of the song. ‘Mosquito’ is probably the song that will be the band’s opener for their upcoming concerts, the song is really pumping, not as pumping as ‘Date With The Night’ or ‘Tick’, but if you are looking for the song that you’d like to karaoke for, this song will fit you most. Their ‘Under The Earth’ is our next favourite, it’s full with the heavy drums, and eventhough it sounds dark (or not so dark). ‘Area 52’ is the bomb! We’ll say that because this song is the closest one to the raw Yeah Yeah Yeahs, plus to confirm about the raw-ness of Area 52, Karen O confessed that this song has the roughest lyrics (after ‘Art Star’), it also has the best Nick’s riff in this album (there you go for those who scream a Fever To Tell-ish song!). Area 52 is obviously the song that has the richest materials among the other tracks. Their songs like ‘Despair’ and ‘Wedding Song’ are some of the song that show the genius part of the band’s musicality.

The fourth album is just different, it gives the different side of the band, intriguing and also less crazier. Most of the tracks offer dark and low tunes, and even for ‘Buried Alive’ features DrOctagon, the guest rap for the song. It’s just different. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ three previous albums got nominated for Grammys, we were expecting the fourth would be the goal of the band to score the triumph, but after ripping the album, we are quite doubt this album will even be nominated. However, Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on their transition way, this album is just not their strongest work. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are not the party-punks anymore, the songs in ‘Mosquito’ are not the songs that will make Karen do some crazy stage acts, it’s the mature Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Mosquito :

1. Blur – Coffee And TV (Released in 1999)

2. Oasis – All Around The World (Released In 1998)

3. Sugar Ray – Someday (Released in 1999)

4. Radiohead – Karma Police (Released In 1997)

5. Björk – Jóga (Released In 1997)

6. The Cardigans – Lovefool (Released in 1996)

7. Cher – Believe (Released In 1998)

8. No Doubt – Don’t Speak (Released In 1996)

9. Vengaboys – We Like To Party (Released In 1998)

10. Save Ferries – Come On Eileen (Released In 1997)

11. Fatboy Slim – Right Here , Right Now (Released In 1999)

12. Smash Mouth – All Star (Released In 1999)

13.Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Californication (Released In 1999)

14. Foo Fighters – Learn To Fly (Released In 1999)

15. Natalie Imbruglia – Torn (Released In 1997)

16. Suede – The Beautiful Ones (Released In 1997)


17. Alanis Morisette – Ironic

Their first debut, ‘Shelter Song’, is an experimental song which turns into a genius work with an amazing influence of west coast pop. You’ll hear this kaleidoscopic effect on their songs which is a result of the vintage equipments that they used to the songs. As we quote from Guardian on Temples’ Shelter Song “The singer gets the vocals just right, sounding appropriately intoxicated, dazed and suffused with surreal daydreams, with his invocations to “take me away to the twilight zone”. Temples have performed with bands like Mystery Jets, Stealing Sheep, and Moon Duo in Leeds. The newbies of Heavenly Recording which is a label for TOY, really good at things that they do, their experimental work with sounds or effects doesn’t lose a sight of their songs, we are pretty much sure Temples need to get the recognitizion (they deserve).

Temples have this infectious melodies which will linger on your mind once you listen to their music,  If you are a die-hard fans of psychedelic music, you’ll have this higher expectation for the original psychedelic tunes on their music, but Temples are a fabulous new band that will give you a nonstop hallucinogenic experience.

For some it may seem like a normal 9-5 Wednesday (15/05), but for music enthusiasts, it was a surreal dream come true. Big Sound Festival (BSF) 2013, one of the most talked festivals in South-east Asia happened at Lapangan D Senayan. Blur, the Temper Trap, Tegan And Sara, and Van She were ready to give a musical earthquake.

Van She, who once have come to Jakarta in 2012 (for Playground 5), paid their second visit for BSF. They were the kickstarter of the festival. Van She shone out the early comers of the festival with their sparkly synth and electro-rock musics, the crowd were incrementing as the sun set.

Let’s double the fun with Tegan And Sara. The twins brought eleven songs including ‘Back In Your Head’, ‘Walking With A Ghost’, and ‘Feel It In My Bones’ a song that they worked with Tiesto. Their amiable approach to the crowd made the show into an intimate kind of show, even though they performed a short set, they managed to partially sang a requested song from the crowd that was not listed in the setlist.

As the night got crazier, the Temper Trap went to the stage as the last performer to open the night for Blur. The Australian stunners opened their performance with ‘Love Lost’, Dougy Mandagi’s vocal was pretty jaw-dropping and we were sure he didn’t miss any high notes to reach his heavenly falsettos. The night’s most fascinating moment evolved when the band performed ‘Drum Song’. The band successfully invited the crowd to sing along to their well-sought and worshiped song, ‘Sweet Disposition’.

Three amazing bands had opened the night and it led to a one legendary name that the crowd had been shouting since they entered the festival’s area, the one and only, Blur. It looked like the crowd couldn’t hold their feelings to sing their lungs out for Blur’s song, even before the band hit the stage, the crowd sang Tender’s “Oh My Baby, Oh My Baby, Oh Why, Oh Why”. The backdrop of the stage started revealing a huge picture of “Under the Westway”, as a clue that the band would be on stage just in a few minutes, the lights were dimmed, and Blur, one of the most historical bands, appeared on stage!

The crowd erupted to a great mass dancing scene when the band launched ‘Girls & Boys’ to start off their show and then followed by ‘Popscene’ which turned up the energy into another level. As the show went on, Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon loosened up by performing ‘Badhead’, ’Beetlebum’, and ‘Out Of Time’. The band who were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the 2012 Brit Awards played ‘Coffee & Tv’ which its video was being known as one of the most iconic music videos. The karaoke session didn’t stop there, the band then played the intro of ‘Tender’ which was immediately responded by the screams of excitement from the crowd, the soul of the song brought the atmosphere into a much deeper power. Furthermore, the addition of a horn section and four backup singers brought another level of depth to Blur’s sound. After receiving the daunting ambiance  the band bombarded the fans with ‘Country House’, ‘Parklife’, and ‘End Of Century’. The band decided to went off from the stage after they performed ‘This Is A Low’ which simultaneously made the crowd to do the classic encore cheering. After a few minutes of cheering an encore, Blur wandered back to the stage and played ‘Under The Westway’ and ‘For Tomorrow’. When Blur performed ‘The Universal’, the crowd got mesmerized to the song, but the peak of the show was not to the very glorious of ‘The Universal’. The crowd had recognized (and according to their setlist on their show in Hong Kong) that ‘Song 2’ would be the last song to perform. And it was. The last song totally shook the crowd and Song 2 was an epic closure to wrap up the memorable night for Blur’s fans.

Blur jammed the nineteen songs just like it was their first time to pump the crowd, even though they have become wiser in age, they still know how to captivate these songs, sounding as great as how a legendary band should be. Witnessing Blur in Jakarta, where A-list bands don’t come too often, is another reason why you should be in for a whole lot of woe if you didn’t catch their live performance. We witnessed most of the crowd having glassy-eyed and even cried when the show ended. Knowing Blur also felt happy with the crowd has proved that Jakarta has one of the best crowd that the band have been performing to. Whether they will come back to Jakarta or not, they have dropped one hell of a good show. Let us all cross out ‘Blur’ from our ‘Artists That You Have To See Before You Die’ list.

Froya , a local swing pop band who have made quite the impression with their softness and hip song opened the night crowd up just before Wye Oak comes to stage. Froya brought seven of their songs, including “Save My Heart”, “Fries and Cream” and “Panic Bird”. As the band entered the stage with a start of their first song, there was an instant chemistry captivated by the music, the band and the audience.”Two Small Death“ Jenn Wasner technically strong singer, and being made to perform twisty melodies at full pelt for taxes his voice till you wince in sympathy.

“Holy Holy” was next, the minor audio clipping in the bridge was extravagant and literally perfect, some of crowd started singing along, out of nowhere I heard someone kept roaring “the searing gorgeous holy holy ! ” right after their third song. They showed how big they love the crowd “I already heard I know you’re awesome. So far, don’t screw it up” the band was communicative into crowd interaction, audience kept asking her a questions, she answered it friendly and even made a joke of it. “Altar” made a different mood for the audience, illusionist fantastic with delayed melody coming from the guitar and perfectly hit the crowd, they showed the differences of their own indie rock style of genres and it was kick ass! Throughout the whole set I personally couldn’t shake off the feeling that the band sounded unique and original even some of people have compared them with The White Stripes, or War Paint. The crowd had been pumped up as “Take It In“ was played next, followed by three other songs including the single “Civilian” and the crowd’s most-requested “That I Do”. Few of the crowd were mostly dancing with a beer in hand, some were quiet and couple were chattering and cuddling.

Surprisingly right before playing their single Civilian Jenn gave out a spoiler, great news about them going to add a bassist as the new member of Wye Oak band. “I know something is missing in our band we need bass in our song but we couldn’t afford bass guitar (giggling), but next time we would bring bass guitar it’s going to be awesome, definitely next time!”

After Civilian, the single known as one of TV series soundtrack “Walking Dead”, they left the stage, people were nowhere near jaded and kept on screaming for encore. It was our lucky night. They came back to the stage and continued to play another 2 songs, right after the audience asked “what is your favourite band?”, they awkwardly couldn’t answer it, but nonetheless they played one of their favourite song “Neil Young – Pocahontas” As Jenn tuned her guitar to get ready for her solo, she shared that she worked at Gilmores Cafe on Baltimore, The Bee reminds her to that place and said this place is even better, thanked The Bee for having them! Then Jenn Waster dramatically ended the show singing “Doubt” as solo guitar. Well, there they were on stage in Kuala Lumpur for their very first time, loving the crowd and the crowd loved them too. We hope that they keep their words to come back here again.  (Viary Chandra//Made Sania)

The band’s musical architect, aesthetic director, and also producer, Rostam Batmanglij said on his twitter page that “It is a good time to tell you I think it’s our best record“. With help from Ariel Rechtshaid as co-producer, Batmanglij and Rechtshaid successfully built the ‘dark’ character on this album and made it to be their best record. If you listen the song ‘Hudson‘ and look at the album’s cover, it’s an art photograph taken by Neal Boenzi for The New York Times on November 24th 1966, you can easily feel the ambiance of the tunes.

Photo by: Alex John Beck

Batmanglij and Koenig started writing materials for their third album right after they finished ‘Contra‘ tour in 2010. The band’s drummer, Chris Tomson helped them writing ‘Hannah Hunt‘, a song about Koenig’s classmates in college. After all the material wrapped up the band who just performed on Saturday Night Live last Saturday (11/6) began to record the album at L.A.’s Vox Studio.

Speaking of the whole album we can assume that it is different than the two previous albums. You can see the preppy Ivy Leagues grads have become more mature in every songs both for musics and lyrics. But you still can feel their unique characteristic. Like in ‘Diane Young‘ or ‘Dyin’ Young‘, ‘Unbelievers‘, ‘Finger Back‘ and ‘Worship You‘ you can still jumping around and dance your ass off (just like what you do when you listen to the songs on their previous albums). In the last track ‘Young Lion‘ you can hear Batmanglij’s tender voice because this song is written and sung by him.

The actor and director Steve Buscemi, who directed Vampire Weekend American Express Music Unstaged at Roseland Ballroom, said, “What I love about them is that you can either just get off on the musicality of it or go deeper.” and we couldn’t agree more with him.

]]> http://www.svanapaper.com/the-modern-tunes-from-vampire-weekend/feed/ 0 http://www.svanapaper.com/local-vocal-dialog-dini-hari/ http://www.svanapaper.com/local-vocal-dialog-dini-hari/#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 05:19:07 +0000 Tiara Ayuwardani http://www.svanapaper.com/?p=4176 Dialog Dini Hari is not a new comer, that is for sure. Formed in 2008, the band was initiated by Dadang from Navicula and Mark and Ian from Kaimsasikun. Dialog Dini Hari was where their ideas might flow diversely from their identity-genre. In layers of folk, blues, and ballad, Dialog Dini Hari poetically delivers their view about social reality, life, love, or environment.

“Segarkan ingatanmu saat menghirupku
Resapi rasa hadirnya diriku
Aku bisa hidupkan dirimu hari ini
Terbang melayang, ke awan, menghilang
Datang dan pergi sendiri, tak terkendali”

(And that was a song about oxygen. Told ya, poetic.)

Dadang’s recognizable bariton voice along with strum of the guitar and beat of the drum has created a signature ambience: you’ll know them when you hear them. Their latest album is Lengkung Langit (2012) after Beranda Taman Hati and Dialog Dini Hari.

You can continue to immerse yourself with their sets in https://soundcloud.com/dialogdinihari

“No! We’re like Birmingham’s biggest buzz band but we just want to represent London,” said Ellie Rowsell, the frontwoman of Wolf Alice, to NME. We’ll put that as a starter just in case you guys will put them along with Birmingham’s bands like Peace or Swim Deep. Wolf Alice might be your average indie band, but they are starting to be the ones to watch. The band consist of Ellie Rowsell, Joel Amey, Joff Oddie, and Theo Ellis, were formed in 2010. Wolf Alice’s early root was basically a country slash folk-infused psych rock but later when the rhythm section joined, they turned into rock-pop with some fiery and loud tunes in it.

At the beginning, Wolf Alice was Ellie Roswell’s solo project. The story is simple, Ellie and Joff were planning to create a MySpace’s page, then later completed by the additions of Joel Amey and Theo Ellis. If you listen to their ‘Leaving You’, you’ll recognize them as a solo affair, but the song gradually shows a sound of a fully-formed band. The name of the band was picked from an Angela Carter’s novel.

In 2012, they released their first self-titled EP and a single, ‘Leaving You’. Wolf Alice’s Leaving You has earned an airplay on BBC Radio, the band also have spotted by NME to their Radar’s list and featured as one of the most exciting new bands in 2013. In the same year, Wolf Alice did some touring with Peace. The band are not bringing some heavy material music (that contains of random idealist thoughts) but they bring this sweetness, light, full of friendship stuffs, especially in their song ‘Bros’. Ellie Roswell described their music as “It was teen self-indulgence in a way, if that makes sense. When you’re 16 and you hate your parents, boys don’t fancy you and your friends didn’t invite you to their sleepover. You think you’re going through something no one understands so you write a song about it and it makes you feel better. Also I just wanted to be Avril Lavigne…obviously.”

Wolf Alice might be known for their sweety friendship songs, but you can get yourself to listen to ‘Fluffy’, which was released in February 2013. Fluffy is more to a pop-rock loud song that will snab people’s ears with the repetitive loud part, “Set Free! Set Free!”, on its chorus. Wolf Alice are just a pure work of the London four-piece that will suit your life’s soundtrack. You may ask more about Wolf Alice’s songs, just wait for them as Ellie confirmed the band have bunch of songs that they would like to show to a wide listener, but they are only available for the live shows. So, we can only say “keep calm and listen to Wolf Alice”.

We all have our own favorite movie soundtracks, from Star Wars to Nick and Norah to Les Miserables, so can this be our next most favourite movie soundtracks? Lana Del Rey, among the artists who wrote songs for the picture, is the first out of the blocks. Her “Young and Beautiful” was released ahead of the album, which arrived on May 7, and is being used in its trailer along with “Over the Love” from Florence & the Machine. As myself thinks that Fergie, Q-Tip, and GoonRock’s “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)” is perfect to summarize the flamboyance Jay Gatsby, not to Beyonce and Andre 3000′s cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” it’s too dramatic the essence of the song makes no connection with the movie itself.

“..And the story is so relevant to today we wanted music that would have the spark that jazz would have had in the 1920s..” – Luhrmann

The tracklisting for The Great Gatsby standard soundtrack is:

’100$ Bill’ – Jay-Z
‘Back To Black’ – Beyonce x Andre 3000
‘Bang Bang’ – will.i.am
‘A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)’ – Fergie + Q Tip + GoonRock
‘Young And Beautiful’ – Lana Del Rey
‘Love Is The Drug’ – Bryan Ferry with The Bryan Ferry Orchestra
‘Over The Love’ – Florence + The Machine
‘Where The Wind Blows’ – Coco O. of Quadron
‘Crazy In Love’ – Emeli Sande and The Bryan Ferry Orchestra
‘Together’ – The xx
‘Hearts A Mess’ – Gotye
‘Love Is Blindness’ – Jack White
‘Into The Past’ – Nero
‘Kill And Run’ – Sia

source: flavorwire , nme

1.Jaw-dropping Line-ups

Eventhough this is the very first volume of Dyandra Entertainment’s concert festival, Big Sound Festival has shown its fangs on the very first time they released the line-ups. The event will be featured big names like Blur (UK), Van She (AUS), The Temper Trap (AUS) and Tegan & Sara (CAN). Did you just say “Is this really happening?”. YES, IT IS!

 2.The Reasonable Price

We know at some point you’ll whine about the price of the ticket, but guys, take a look to the line-ups one more time! They got Blur, Van She, the Temper Trap, and Tegan&Sara. Four bands and it only costs you IDR 950.000 for the regular festival and IDR 1.250.000 for the VIP festival. And there are so many offers that give a discount (Check Dyandra Ent’s twitter to find out the offers). It must be out of range for some people, but if you want to experience one of the most anticipated music festivals in 2013, this is one hell of a “You Shouldn’t Miss” event.

 3.Completing the series

If you went to Road To Big Sound Fest 2013 (the pre-event for Big Sound Fest 2013), we really think you are in a halfway to complete your music festival series. You started it with a good experience in April with the Kooks, Delphic, and the Radio Dept., why not wrapping it up with Blur, the Temper Trap, Tegan & Sara, and Van She?

 4.One Of the Biggest Events in South-East Asia

People from Singapore, Phillipines, Malaysia and some neighbour countries, are coming to Jakarta just to catch this festival. They have to get some extra fees just to get in to Jakarta, meanwhile, you, who live in Jakarta, only need to pay for the ticket concert. And if you are a live music enthusiast, this should be on your must-see concerts in 2013. The excitement waves from international visitors have confirmed how BIG this festival is!

 5.Blur!

This is the strong point of why you shouldn’t miss Big Sound Festival 2013. Blur is a legendary band who have made a remarkable career in the music industry. NME also put Blur as one of the 50 artists that you have to see before you die. The chance is just right in front of your eye balls! Furthermore, we live in a country where it’s very seldom to have a super legendary band to come to your city. Psst, Blur’s set in Jakarta will be 2-hours long!

After reading the 5 ultimate reasons above, you might have an eye-opening moment and start realizing how must you have to attend the Big Sound Festival. Save your spate of “thank you” words to us, the only thing that you have to do now is rushing to the nearest ticket store or buy it online as soon as possible. See you at Big Sound Festival 2013!

Go to Dyandra Entertainment‘s website to know more about Big Sound Festival 2013

The video is directed by a Korean film maker, Shimbe Shim.

1.Wye Oak is a duo, composed of Andy Stack (drums, keyboards, backup vocals) and Jenn Wasner (vocals, guitars) from Baltimore, Maryland, (USA). Monarch is the previous name of the band before they changing their name into Wye Oak

2.The band name is a reference to the former State tree of their home state ; Maryland.

3. Wye Oak were mostly influenced by US Indie rock giants like Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Wilco. They also take reference from singer songwriter such as Neil Young and Elliot Smith.

4. Jenn and Andy Stack of Wye Oak grew up in the sububrbs outside of Baltimore.Jenn grew up in Owings Mills and Andy grew up in Catonsville.They met in high school and eventually formed a band with a few other friend

5.Although they still hew closely to 90’s Indie rock, their label found a way of describing their sound best as ; “ 21st century folk”

6.Andy Stack  attended Berkelee School of Music graduated with a major focused in jazz

7.Jenn Wasner started taking piano lessons when she was about eight, and her mom taught her to play guitar when she was a teenager.she was playing music a lot before it occurred to her to start writing on her own.she’s always had an innate memory and sense for music, though.

8.One of their single ; Civilian, has been the soundtrack of some major TV Series such as The Walking Dead and One Tree Hill

9. It’s not easy to describe their range of music, some call it slow core, other call it dream folk, or, if you need a detail information, pitchfork describe their sound as “earnest folk influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream“

10.Based on an interview, Jenn Wasner most hated song is “Papa Roach  Scars“  But the reason she chose this one is because she felt like everyone’s heard “Thank God I’m A Country Boy”,but probably a lot of people haven’t heard this song and she feel like everyone should have to hear this song at some point in their life. (Viary Chandra)