Kimbra

This native New Zealander may be more familiar to the masses as the girl in the hit single: ’Somebody That I Used To Know’, but beyond that, Kimbra creates music that is a vivid arc of youthful exuberance and mature introspection, conveying an array of insights through her pop-funk beats.

Fun Fact: Wanting to run away from all the post-Grammy’s praise and criticism, Kimbra escaped to a sheep farm to write her latest release, The Golden Echo. In her words “The sheep don’t give a crap who you are. You spend time with them and there’s this beautiful kind of harmony of how everything works in that environment. It was a really great space to create.”

Local Natives

These Los Angeles-based group have come a long way from their days at the Gorilla Manor. Their newest album, Hummingbird’s solemn darkness is a far cry from the “battle-cry urgency” of Gorilla Manor‘s Sun Hands, perhaps acting as a window towards the changes they have gone through in the last few years following the departure of bassist Andy Hamm and the recent death of Kelcey Ayer’s mother.

Keeping their uniquely collaborative process intact, this band has matured from the comfort space of their established aesthetic and came out even stronger.

Fun Fact: Before each show, the boys of Local Natives psych themselves up before each show by listening to a specific song together. Every tour has a different theme song, from Prince to David Bowie, the list is as endless as it is random!

Jagwar Ma

Jono Ma and Gabriel Winterfield first met onstage at an FLRL stage performance of revolving musicians. With a mutual love of studio jams, home recordings, radio frequency manipulation, TR808 patterns, MPCs loops, vintage amps, and 7 inch vinyls — these two have found a soul amidst all that electricity. Creating music that slices human harmonies sliced apart by a dagger of sharp contemporary programming.

Fun Fact: They both come from mixed raced backgrounds! Gabriel’s dad is Persian and Jono’s dad is Chinese.

The Lemonheads

After their initial punk-influenced releases as an independent”college rock” band in the late 1980s, the Lemonheads’ popularity with a mass audience grew in 1992 with the major label album It’s a Shame about Ray,

Now, they’re back after an 8 year hiatus, with new releases that jumps from early British psychedelic to Dutch electronica, leaving you not know what is coming next but always wanting more.

Fun Fact: The Lemonheads line up has always been volatile, having more than a dozen different configurations over the last 28 years, with Evan Dando being the only constant.

Najwa

Malaysian born Najwa is back after a three year hiatus, playing with somber and minimalistic echoes over warm piano accompaniments. Thus the Aurora EP,stripping her sound down to it’s electronic core and revealing the deepest shadows of her soul.

Fun Fact: Najwa is the daughter of Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin

Kyoto Protocol

This five-piece outfit kick-started a renaissance of Rock & Roll in Malaysia. Since their humble beginnings playing covers in local bars in 2009, Kyoto Protocol have now played all around the world; even holding their own alongside Grammy nominees and YouTube record-breakers in Future Music Festival Asia 2013.

Fun Fact: Kyoto Protocol recently learnt some dance moves from all-girl Japanese pop-punk band Shonen Knife when they met on tour in India.

Enterprise

Enterprise made their first public appearance in 2011 after their rehearsal session on Youtube gained attention from promoters and organizers. Since then, they have played in music festivals, parties and shows all around Malaysia.

They made their Urbanscapes debut in 2012 and will take flight once again this year as we enter the Enterprise.

Fun Fact: Their name is inspired by the USS Enterprise, which Trekkies will recognise as the main setting for various television series and films in the Star Trek franchise.

OJ Law

OJ Law’s catchy melodies and arrangements have won him much critical acclaim and an ever-increasing fan base falling for the charms of his music. Urbanscapes will be the live debut of his latest album, ‘Let’s Be Adult’. Influenced by 70s pop and contemporary synth-pop, ‘Let’s Be Adult’ is an autobiographical album containing OJ Law’s most personal songs to date.

Fun Fact: OJ Law singlehandedly writes, records, and produces all his albums, with 3 albums to date.

June Marieezy

Hailing from the Philippines, June will be making her Kuala Lumpur debut this Urbanscapes. Where she will deliver her melodies, smooth voice, and lyrical heart songs through a performance that channels part performance arts, part visuals and a whole lot of interesting sound manipulations.

Fun Fact: June likens playing the flute to having a dialogue with the wind. An apt performance to look forward to considering she’ll play at a venue in the clouds.

Cashew Chemists

Heavily influenced by pop-rock music of the 60’s and 70’s, this Singaporean four-piece-bandwill enchant you with their dreamy harmonies and classic bluesy bass on top of a twiddling surf guitar.

Fun Fact: In the words of Daniel Sassoon, “Cashew Chemists kinda sounds like what the Strokes might have sounded like if they traded their New York hipster club-prowling swagger for a Singapore kopitiam seat-hunting gait…some serious potential lurking in there!”

The Cotton Field Scarecrows

The Cotton Field Scarecrowes is a Malaysian indie-folk band who blends the earthy tone of early American folk with modern-day retro styled music. Their debut album ‘Dancing Hymns And Broken Rhymes’ which was released late last year embraces what they call “The Bleak Folk Hymnody”.

Fun Fact: Tracks on their debut albumwas mostly recorded live, with the finishing blanketed with long play textures. This is to give listeners the vinyl experience anytime, anywhere.

Azmyl Yunor & Orkes Padu

Azmyl Yunor & Orkes Padu is a new band spearheaded by Malaysian underground folk icon Azmyl Yunor and beat guru Raje, the band leader of Orkes Padu. Experience a toe-tapping technicolor embodiment of the plaintive yet heartfelt heartland storytelling from one of Malaysia’s best at Urbanscapes. Modern folk rock to celebrate the Malaysian spirit!

Fun Fact: Orkes Padu means solid orchestra in the Malay language.

Ali Aiman

This Malaysian-born multi-instrumentalist has been strutting his stuff since 2006. With a mastery of the piano and trumpet that has earned him industry-wide recognition. After six years of living abroad, Urbanscapes will be Ali Aiman’s attempt to re-enter the local music scene with his new and improved refinement.

Fun Fact: Ali Aiman graduated from the Berklee College of Music with 1st Class Honours in Contemporary Writing and Production!

Faiq & The Manja Mob

Faiq & The Manja Mob may not have any original material (yet), but get ready to be seduced by muscles, magic, multiple languages, and strange musical choices. Lead singer, Amanda’s gentle voice is reminiscent of old-school crooner, Doris Day. If Doris Day was Malaysian and cursed more, that is.

Fun Fact: The day jobs of the band range from physiotherapist,copywriter, to even a financier.

Paperplane Pursuit

This electro-pop band self-produced a single called ‘Beat Of Your Love’, a collaboration with fellow Malaysian musician and DJ, Darren Ashley portraying their fierce independence and DIY capabilities in the production of their music and their videos. Since then, Paperplane Pursuit has released their second album titled ‘Higher’ along with a follow up single ‘Feel Good’.

Fun Fact: The music video for ‘Feel Good’was self-produced with the help of some of the most recognisable faces in the Malaysian entertainment scene.

Jumero

Making their first debut at Urbanscapes back in 2012 after winning The Star R.AGE open-mic competition, these laid-back acoustic trio hassince then, written their first EP which will be releasing at the end of 2014.

Fun Fact: Apart from their passion of writing and releasing original songs, the trio also enjoy covering current as well as older classic songs whilst adding their personal touch to it.

Dirgahayu

Dirgahayu first emerged in July 2013 as a 3­-piece instrumental math­rock outfit. The band hit the scene with a single release Bahawasa­nya: 4 minutes of organised chaos, robust guitar attacks, and exuberant drum beats punctuated by intense abrupt transitions.With the recent addition of Seikan Sawaki on drums and Zulhezan back on guitar duty, expect their sound dynamics to turn more progressive, odd-signature compositions greeted with dense guitar riffs and a new foray of sound.

Fun Fact: Dirgahayu comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “Long live my Lord” and was supposed to be used only for the king, as the phrase “Dirgahayu Tuanku” is often used to hail the royal highnesses in Malaysia.

Urbanscapes 2014 – Playlist :

(Adeline Hong)

If you could dispel any misconceptions about Foals that you’ve encountered, what would it be? They would say, “That it’s difficult. That it’s ‘math’. That it’s ‘new rave’. That we’re in pain. That Edwin knows how to play keyboards. That because we are geeks we don’t know how to dance. That only Campari is good enough. That our only friends are girls. That we have kids and run marathons for fun. That Walter is actually someone else who killed Walter along time ago and is wearing his face. That there is another Jimmy. That Yannis is the Caucasian heir to Prince. That Jack is a Beaker. That we are afrobeat….” Thing is, with Foals, you never know whether one, some or all of those things are actually true. Musically and personally enigmatic, impossible to pigeonhole but full to the brim with potential; potential that is now, hopefully being realised. As Arctic Monkeys might have said: bet they’ll look good on the dancefloor.

And we have ten super special facts to enrich your knowledge about Foals!

1. Before the inception of Foals, Yannis and Jack were in a proper math-rock band and have been playing together since they were 15. They described their first band Edmund Fitzgerald as being ‘heavy’, ‘technical’, and ‘mostly instrumental.’

2. Yannis and Edwin dropped out of Oxford University to pursue a career in music. Walter and Jack also dropped out of university and joined Foals.

3. Guitarist Jimmy was the only member to finish his degree. He studied geography at the University of Hull.

4. Before writing Total Life Forever, Yannis explained that he wanted to use some drugs to play a part in the album because it is “a totally valuable and enjoyable way to make music.”

5. Yannis has been keeping a journal since he was 12. He still has all of them except the one that he lost during a fight.

6. Yannis told interviewers that Walter Gervers is a descendent of Lord Kitchener. The internet isn’t sure whether or not he’s telling the truth, though.

7. Keyboardist Edwin Congreave keeps a food blog on the meals he makes and orders on tour. It’s called Tour Bar Blues.

8. Jack Bevan recorded some of his drums for ‘Antidotes’ in Brooklyn alleyways in the middle of the night.

9. Yannis once survived an earthquake in Greece. “It wasn’t very terrifying,” he commented.

10. Holy Fire’s ‘Inhaler’ is about claustrophobia.

Theresa Wayman, Emily Kokal, Jenny Lee Lindberg, and Stella Mozgawa are the members of an American Indie Rock outfit named Warpaint. Warpaint has just released their brand new self-titled album and now they’re going to rock Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, February 12th, 2014. Of course we’re at Svana Paper are going to provide you some mesmerizing facts that you may didn’t know yet about the band. Here are amusing facts about Warpaint:

1. The band has a special relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their vocalist, Emily Kokal used to date former Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist, John Frusciante. Even John mixed Warpaint’s debut EP, “Exquisite Corpse” in 2008. RHCP’s current guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer used to fill drums for Warpaint.

2. Heath Ledger used to be a fan of this band back in their early days in Los Angeles.

3. Holywood actress, Shannyn Sossamon is an older sister of Jenny Lee Lindberg. She’s one of the founding member of Warpaint and used to fill drums during their early days.

4. Even though they were based in Los Angeles, their drummer, Stella Mozgawa is a native Australian.

5. Way before the appearance of cute indie pinups like Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHS and the Haim sisters, Jenny Lee Lindberg has been considered as the cutest indie pinup. Even Birmingham outfits, Swim Deep has cited her name on the lyrics of their hit, “King City”

6. Warpaint’s hit, “Billie Holiday” is an ode to late jazz singer, Billie Holiday and a hit from Mary Wells, “My Guy”.

7. Theresa Wayman is one of the cast from 2002 movie, The Rules of Attraction.

8. Warpaint is going to visit Kuala Lumpur for the first time on February 12th, 2014. You can buy the tickets at Soundscape Records or Rock Corner. Their sophomore, Warpaint is an early contender for our album of the year so please make sure you don’t miss this gig! Cheers.

There’s nothing more fun than finding out ten hidden interesting facts of your favourite band. For now, we’ve got ten interesting facts of Mew that you should know. With a help from Indonesian Frengers, we are ready to give them all to you!

1. Mew consist of three members, Jonas Bjerre (lead vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums) after their bassist, Johan Wohlert, decided to depart from the band in 2006. For their live performances, the band have Doctor Nick Watts (keyboardist) and Bastian Juel (bassist).

2. On October 26th 2013 will be Mew’s fourth time of performing in Indonesia after having their previous shows in Bali (2003), Jakarta (2009), Surabaya (2010).

3. Jonas Bjerre (lead vocals) is so keen to see the gamelan show in Indonesia and the most interesting is…. he wants to try riding Jakarta’s TransJakarta!

4. Bo Madsen (guitar) once worked as a Germany teacher for a couple of months.

5. Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums) has been fully inspired by African music, which can be heard in his rhythm (in album “And The Glass Handed Kities”) eventhough you won’t find the African music clearly. But it’s there.

6. In song “Apocalypso”, there is “Nolan” in its lyrics. Nolan is actually Jonas Bjerre’s dentist. The story is he had to wait for a while for his dentist to come, because of that, he wrote “in Nolan time..”

7. Lyrics “No Shadow Kick” are written in “broken cantonese” language, That’s why the band are not going to be able to perform the live version in its own studio version.

8. Mew will be making their debut as the final judge of “Covering Sounds”. Covering Sounds is the Indonesian Frengers’ competition of doing a cover work of Mew’songs. The finalists’ cover work can be heard on indonesianfrengers.com

9. Mew just released their music application, “Sensory Spaces”, and published their official announcement in several languages, including Indonesian. The application is designed by a french designer, Kevin Hammon.

10. Been thinking to give some gift to Mew? Do it! Mew are known as a gift-keeper from their fans! As they still have the gifts from Indonesian Frengers, such as the handmade flag of Indonesian Frengers, “Eggs Are Funny” face mask, t-shirt, event flyers, and etc.

Bet You Didn’t Know : The Killers

It’s our hobbies to collect all of the fun facts for you, the music fans! For this time, we are bringing up about The Killers’ fun facts since the band is making a debut in Kuala Lumpur on September 22^nd 2013.  Here we go, the 10 fun facts that you didn’t know and you should know about the Killers ;

1. Some bands were formed through music festivals or by living in the same neighbourhood. But the Killers? They did it in a different way to complete the band. The Killers’ guitarist, David Keuning, put a small ad to get a band member for the band and the words that he put were : “Looking to start or join band? Influences: U2, Pumpkins, Oasis.”

 2. Still from the ad, Brandon was clearly not the first person who responded to David’s ad. According to David, Brandon was the first “non-freak” applicant who responded to it.

 3. The Killers’ music video, ‘Mr.Brightside’, was inspired from a romantic musical movie, Moulin Rouge.

 4. New Order’s ‘Crystal’ inspired the band’s name!

 5. Before being everyone’s candy-eye or one of the best rock band vocalists, Brandon worked as a bellboy at a hotel in Las Vegas. And Ronnie Vannucci worked at a flower shop.

 6. The Killers once got offered to perform as one of the headliners for Glastonbury due to Kylie Minogue’s withdrawal to perform since she had a breast cancer on that time. However, the band turned down the offer just because they didn’t have enough songs to perform.

 7. Love or hate it, Brandon Flowers did a solo record before, ‘Flamingo’, and he is planning to do another solo record. Guess we are going to face another hiatus from the band.

 8. Remember when some bands do some different version for their music video? The Killers also took part in this kind of thing. “Mr. Brightside” the UK version is in black and white while the US version portrays “Moulin Rouge”.

 9. It’s not only British bands’ hobbies to badmouth about the other bands to the press. The native American band like the Killers, are also known for their bad-mouth about Fall Out Boy, Panic At the Disco, and the Bravery.

 10. The Killers love using a chapel choir to glorify their music. Sweet Inspirations are the name of the choir that the band. And it’s also the choir who worked for Elvis Presley.

1.The band’s name, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, was taken from modern New York City vernacular as in “whatever / ok”.

2.Karen O married Barnaby Clay in 2011 and Clay directed the video of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ single “Zero”.

3.Yeah Yeah Yeahs is not the only band that Karen O work with, she once did a side project called Native Korean Rock (NKR). NKR tend to have more romantic songs than Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and some of the romantic songs in Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ album was influenced by couple of NKR’s tracks.

4. Before Brian Chase hop to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he was a drummer for a country music band. And he is not the first drummer of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

5. We all know that Nick Zinner (and Brian Chase) have been to Indonesia for couple of times. But do you know what is Nick Zinner’s favourite dish when he is in Indonesia? Bubur Kacang Ijo.

6.Are you surprised (in a good way) with Karen O’s new hair colour? Okay, it’s not only you who are surprised with it. Karen O has dyed her hair blond before when she was 20 and her mother hated that.

7.Yeah Yeah Yeahs almost made it to Jakarta in 2009, however it didn’t happen. But thankfully, Ismaya Live has granted our wish! Hell yeah!

 
8.There’s a funny yet stupid situation that happened to Nick Zinner when he was in Indonesia. Once he got thrown out of a brothel in here. Which city? That’s still a mistery.

 
9. The band became one of the first western rock acts to play China when they headlined the Modern Sky Festival in Beijing in 2007.

 
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new album “Mosquito” is one the toughest albums that the band have done. The album was worked in New York and Karen O stated that the process in making the fourth album is quite like they way how they worked “Fever To Tell” and their first demo.

After reading those ten fun facts, we hope you guys are ready to hit Love Garage 2013!  Let’s roll! (Alcander Alonzo)