Following a successful 2017 event with a crowd 10,000+ strong, Laneway Festival Singapore returns to the idyllic setting of The Meadow at Gardens By The Bay .

St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival has expanded into a seven-city music festival which has gained international following and acclaim, as well as an unrivaled reputation for programming new talents on the cusp of greatness. Having well and truly settled into its home in each state, the event is a true highlight on the Singapore, New Zealand and Australian music calendars.

Going in to Laneway 2018, we have few reasons to tell why Laneway Festival Singapore is your hottest ticket for the wildest weekend getaway:

1. A celebration of South-East Asia music

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Festivals should be beyond discovering American and UK music, and Laneway Festival Singapore realize just that. Each year Laneway Festival Singapore celebrates the diversity of South-East Asian talents, and this year’s Laneway is no exception! Performers from across ASEAN will come and show the world what they’re missing. Be ready to show your instagram followers how awesome Heals from Indonesia, Obedient Wives Club from Singapore, The Ransom Collective from the Philippines, and ALEXTBH from Malaysia all really are.

2. Dress your wildest!

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What good is it going to a music festival as big as Laneway Festival Singapore and just dress like your everyday self? Laneway Festival Singapore is the PERFECT time and place to let your guard down and get wild from head to toe. Believe us when we say that people will appreciate it. Nothing like a good, crazy, and fun outfit to get the party started.

3. Get wild with your squad

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When you’re to shy or insecure in getting wild all by yourself, then bring your squad with you! Festivals are the place to share your joy, and Laneway Festival Singapore is no exception. Worry that no one wants to go with you? Worry not my friend because no better place to make new friends than at a festival. Forget about all the people that don’t want to come with you to one of the greatest festival in Asia and make new friends. A huge chance you’ll be going to a lot of Laneway Festivals in the future.

p.s.: apology for the excessive use of the word squad.

4. Eat your guts out

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For a day, give your diet a break and just.eat.you.goddam.guts.out! Imagine being at The Meadow at Gardens by The Bay, you’re laying on the grass, sun is out, you’re listening to Amy Shark telling you she adores you, but you still feel like you’re missing something. We bet 100% that you’re missing food and a cold beer on your hand. Give yourself a break and spoil your heart and tummy for a day.

5. A festival caters to every taste of music

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We’ve come to the main reason on why we absolutely can’t wait for this year’s Laneway Festival Singapore: the music! I mean, have you guys check out the line up?! They got the soulful Amy Shark, the heart-melting Father John Misty, the peachy Wolf Alice, rocking The War On Drugs and they even bring back the quirky Mac Demarco to the stage. Everything you want, Laneway Festival Singapore granted and take it a thousand times better!

Just thinking about all the music and fun we’re going to have at Laneway Festival Singapore 2018 makes us all giddy and chipper inside. We just know we’re gonna have one wild time! (Doc: Laneway)

For more information go to http://singapore.lanewayfestival.com/

Last weekend, thousands music fans once again congregated at The Meadow at Gardens By The Bay for St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival – Singapore edition, which become annual year festival. And for their fifth year’s edition they brought sets from Chet Faker, Pond, Mac Demarco, Jon Hopkins, Angus & Julia Stone, Courtney Barnett, Jungle, FKA Twigs, Little Dragon, Banks, Future Islands and many more.

But it seems like it’s not only for the sake of music only this festival was meant to be, but also for commercial entertainment to show Australia’s summer music festival vibe feels like. Combining the old and new Laneway’s alumnus, we can expect new generation of so called music lovers and festival goers gather together experiencing whats new and what have they missed from previous festivals. With three stages which divided based on either different genres or target market, crowd are force to choose between the acts they knew more and new acts they have never heard before. Another unfortunate but understandable thing also happens when the rain started to poured down just not long after the festival get started, the humidity is just unbearable to see especially for all hipster’s outfits who came not only for the music but for the scene.

Started the festival by English post-punk band Eagulls, rocking the main stages of Laneway with fun yet angry sounds made the punk lovers bopping along to their tunes. Continued by Perth psychedelic band Pond, crowd can enjoy the modern age of rock and roll with an Australian twist. With the distortion of the guitar, heavy drums, swaying vocals and groovy Australian attitude. And that marks the start of the festival.

Another fun sets came from the witty solo singer – songwriter Mac DeMarco and his band. The Canadian-native Mac DeMarco attracted the largest afternoon crowd at Laneway, with his jizz jazz laid-back music. Whilst he fixed up some technical issues, his band mate covered Yellow with some karaoke style goofiness. And as usual, Mac ended his performance by crowd surfing over the soaking wet crowd.

Talking about women’s day not long after the festival, we can see that there are long list of female performance for this year’s festival. Starting with Melbourne, singer-songwriter and guitarist Courtney Barnett, her performance is just as sweet and sly as her music style. Playing songs from her EPs, we can pretty much enjoy what she had brought to festivals such as Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and Coachella.

We also experienced another awesome rock band from duo Royal Blood that afternoon. With the guitar-like bass and drums rippled among the crowds, we definitely thank the promoter for not being too mainstream.

Angus & Julia Stone, the formidable brother-sister duo, hailing from Sydney, which also another top act who have performed at a large-scale event bring their heartbreakingly beautiful lyrics and honey-like harmonies is just nice to company couples that afternoon. Follow by local Singapore acts .gif and Hanging Up The Moon, with their folk acoustic tune which suits the timing for the crowd to have a break for food or just chilling before the sun goes down.

After the sun goes down, the party started up. As expected with big crowd, London’s tropical mambo jambo percussion rhythms band Jungle, serving up without doubt the funkiest set of the day, just nice to start the weekend night. Continued with some other girl power such FKA Twigs, and Swedish band Little Dragon, and followed by Banks, whose electronic efforts were almost wasted on a crowd that was running for cover. As expected with bigger crowds, they are as impressive as what electronic with lots of sound effect could offer. Name that we couldn’t missed was Chet Faker, man who was once a faceless musician with a powerful voice, and became the best of what electronic soul has to offer. After collaborations with the likes of Flume and his hit remixes of songs like Trembling Hands by Australian band and previous Laneway Festival Headliner’s, his live performance is one of the too bad to be missed that time.

Probably things they need to take notes of next time when they want to do such festival in Singapore, are consideration of what exactly the target audiences wanted to enjoy, and again when it comes to after party. We think if they still wanted to held such festival in one of the cleanest place on earth, maybe they can hire some volunteer to do it or just simply not having too much waste cause commercial booth – you know, it’s supposed to be simple raw music festival for music lovers not farmer’s market with lots of unnecessary pop up booths. So lets see what they can bring next year, will the festival be more commercial or they can introduce us to more of music options like what they will do in SXSW. (Photos : Michael Reily)

First thing first, before getting in to the main board on how exciting the night was (22/01), we were just utterly glad that something good finally landed in our country (after all those starvation of those rad music shows in Jakarta last year), all of the credits go to Mac DeMarco’s visit before making an appearance at Laneway Festival 2015 in Singapore.

The vibe that we got once we stepped into the venue, Level II at Foundry No.8, was just full of excitement that we have been drooling and wanting to experience more intimate live music concert in Jakarta. It was clear to say the not so big venue (reminded us to the Malaysia’s Upfront show at The Bee) gave a comfortable feeling to welcome one of the most eclectic performers. To underline how eclectic his performance is, he once performed U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ naked on stage (yes, it’s on YouTube if you are trying to look it up) and in the interview that we had with him in 2013, he said that he’d been dreaming to drink donkey’s cum on stage if he has any chance to do so. To top everything, Mac DeMarco sounds much better when he’s doing live shows, which comes to a reason why we shouldn’t miss his concert.

The night was opened by Jirapah, the local band who stormed in an indie-rock music (and they happened to take part in Brooklyn’s music scene for a while) gave a humble set to poke the crowd a bit before seeing Mac. To us, Jirapah’s performance was definitely not a filler, their dynamic music was just a perfect way to open the night.

As Jirapah left the stage, the lights are slightly dimmed, and the sound crew went back and forth to make sure everything’s set. The small LED screen started showing Mac DeMarco’s banner alarming that the show was just seconds away to start! Opening with an ode to growing older and life soundtrack ‘Salad Days’, a hundreds of voice erupted singing along to its melodyc chorus. He continued his set with fans favorites such as ‘The Stars Keep On Calling My Name’, Blue Boy’, ‘Cooking Up Something Good’, and ‘Let Her Go’. Finding that Mac’s hadn’t  smoked any but after five songs, we started thinking maybe he was subject to building’s protocol, but nope, he didn’t stop there, after asking some permission to one of the crews (who also didn’t give him the smoking pass), the crowd started raining Mac with a pack of cigarettes! Just like an invitation to lit his first cigarette on stage, he smoked one and paid an honor to his favorite thing in the world, performing ‘Ode To Viceroy’. As the night progressed, everything felt really amped up, especially after giving a moody nuance over ‘Still Together’, Mac interrupted the song with a venue-circumventing crowd surf, and gave a quick sign-off before the typical cheering for an encore session hit.

From swaying, mellowing out, laughing, and also not to mention the epic closure of Metallica’s Enter Sandman (or most likely translated into ‘Enter SandMac’) which changed the audience’s style from the urban youth to the king of mosh pit. Mac DeMarco’s charm of his loose music will never fail to win our attention. Just like what expected before, we saw Mac did his regular silly joke, demonstrated Elton John’s Candle In The Wind’ and also his crowd surfing. The way how Mac and his band put a show for the crowd wrapped the night into one word ; memorable. If you have seen Mac DeMarco’s live show before, the stage actions that we mentioned earlier might sound like something that has been done repetitively, however, when it was Mac and his friends who did them, everything didn’t seem like a cliché thing to do, and the most important thing, everything was just enjoyable.

Big thanks goes to PraSvana and STUDIORAMA for bringing Mac DeMarco to town!

You are busy, and that’s pretty much the reason you miss all of the updates about the albums which are released in 2014. In the past eleven months, we have been sitting in our HQ to listen and curate some of our favorite albums this year, each of us picked our best ones to give you some of SVANAPaper’s best picks in 2014. These albums should be in your i-Tunes player.

(Sorted in alphabetical order)

1. Chromeo – White Women

After more than 10 years in the business, this Canadian boogie-duo is still at it, with more grooves that will awaken your inner dancing queen and force you out on the dance floor featuring collaborations with Toro Y Moi, Solange Knowles and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. The Toro Y Moi collaboration on”Come Alive”transporting them back to their electrofunk roots;the rippling guitar lines and pluckybass linesgiving way to a slick, multi-layered chorus.

Recommended Track: Come Alive (ft. Toro Y Moi)

2.FKA Twigs – LP1

Brit musician TahliahBernett hit it on the nail with her first full-length album, LP1. Being a shortlister for the Mercury Album Of The Year Award, FKA Twigs bring something fresh to her twist of Hip-Hop. The album highlights her growth that has been tended to since her first EP with “Water Me” and now is blossoming to something we’re all eager to listen to.

Recommended track: Video Girl

3.Interpol – El Pintor

After the disappointing release of their self-titled album in 2010, Interpol has showed us that they still have some capabilities under their belt with “El Pintor”, 39 minutes album which loaded with the songs that resembles the tracks from “Turn on The Bright Lights”, the album that leaped them into the big league. However, this album is still leaving the famous question, “Will Interpol ever topped Turn On The Bright Lights?”,hanging, Even though this album is not the legitimate answer, it is not a cheap take on that attempt but a nearly-there.

Recommended Track : Anywhere

4. Kasabian – 48:13

Kasabian are surely taking their latest album to the next level. With changing their musicality from the previous ones to have more electronic tunes. Eventhough 48:13 receives mixed reviews and debates regarding the changes of their style, we still praise Tom Cs’ effort to bring something new to the table. This may not their best work, but the album evolves their signature riffs to catchy synthesizers, and everything flows really well. All we can say is 48:13 adjusts with how modern a rock band can be, as we all know Kasabian have always been big with their status, and this predominantly electronic style, they might be starting for something bigger in the upcoming years.

Recommended Track : Bumblebee

5.Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence

A whole package musicality is in here. Pretty persistence lyrics, hot and cold tension ambience of music. Not to exaggerate everything, but ‘Ultraviolence’ should be considered as today’s masterpiece of music albums. With Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys produced it, the songs are composed with a beautiful dark tunes and combined with a sad and seductive of Del Rey’s voice. ‘Ultraviolence’ definitely reflects a maturity version of Lana Del Rey and the album is strongly giving an elevated soul of romanticism.

Recommended Track : Ultraviolence

6. Mac DeMarco – Salad Days

It’s hard to tell if Mac DeMarco is a merry prankster or a tortured soul, but either way, that ambivalence is one of DeMarco’s defining traits. Salad Days, his second full-length release, sees a richer and more assured refinement, as DeMarco becomes continues to grow in his slacker-rock ways. The laid-back melodies of his guitar creating a warm, watery groove that just begs for you to jump into. Layered with his quietly eloquent lyrics, Salad Days is as welcoming as a backyard hammock swaying in the wind.You’re unlikely to hear any other album this year with so many mentions of people’s mothers, but no one nails it like Mac does.

Recommended Track: Treat Her Better

7. Mø – No Mythologies To Follow

Karen Marie Ørsted adheres perfectly to the ever growingscene of electro-pop songstresses Copenhagen is producing. Being an album dedicated to the perplexities of young adulthood, you can expect this long awaited album to be carefree and full of life – just like the eccentric musician herself.

Recommended track: Pilgrim

8.Royal Blood – Royal Blood

It was hard to believe that this band is only consists of two persons when we hear their single, “Little Monster”, on our HQ. Royal Blood has delivered something that we haven’t heard in ages. Rhythmic sounds composed beautifully with a melodic riff that came from a tweaked bass. Nobody would have thought of that at the first place. We could easily spot another monstrous and festival-approved riffs on “Come on Over”, “Careless”, and “Out of the Black”. We won’t be too surprised if they emerge as a festival headliner in the future.

Recommended Track : Little Monster

9. SBTRKT – Wonder Where We Land

The second studio album from SBTRKT gives the same cool mood like what they give us in ‘SBTRKT’. ‘Wonder Where We Land’ highlights our favorites of SBTRKT’s music bass and R&B’s mixture of deep house. The album sounds very neat, moody yet very solid with help from quality vocals of Ezra Koenig, Raury, and Sampha. The core of ‘Wonder Where We Land’ gives a vision of chill ambience which once you dip your ears to the album, it swallows you to the deepest nuance of each well-structured tracks. Quoting from Paste Magazine, “This is an album about vision, movement and manifestation. It’s about removing oneself from the familiar to tap into the brain’s ability to create unprecedented and inspiring art. Success”.

Recommended Track : Temporary View

10. Warpaint – Warpaint

Forget the Haim sisters or Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES. The girls from Warpaint were known as the most adorable girls of indie scene (take a look at Swim Deep’s references of Jenny Lee Lindberg on their hit single, “King City” for example).  After setting off with their first album, “The Fool” in 2010, the girls from Los Angeles, California are back with their second self-titled album. This album has all the formula that catapulted them into the atmosphere. Layered guitar followed by Cocteau twins-esque vocals is a thing that we could still barely hear on this second album. However, they’re more daring to experiment on this second album. Even though there are several new and hip all-girl bands who are riding the stream, Warpaint will always remain as a titular queens of the 00s indie rock.

Recommended Tracks : Disco//Very

Here is the playlist of the recommended tracks from each albums, you’re welcome!

Photo by: Afiq Omar c/o Chugg Entertainment

Laneway Festival is about leading new and revered seminal music. The festival has always been interested in finding what’s fresh and bring it to unique settings and surrounds to be appreciated by music fans.

The Singapore’s most anticipated music festival will return to the spacious pastures of The Meadow, Gardens By The Bay, which is as idyllic as the name conveys. The magical site is a beauty, with plenty of space to watch bands and explore the food and drink kiosks and other fun activities around the festival. Remember this on your mind: Saturday, 24 January 2015.

With grand line-up from various continents, Singapore Laneway Festival is a music party for the world. Present’s names from the States like Future Islands, St. Vincent, and Banks; and the one and only Mac DeMarco all the way from Canada.

Not to mention the British Invasion for the upcoming festival, there will be Eagulls, FKA Twigs, Jungle, Royal Blood, and Rustie. Our most favorite Swedish, Little Dragon and Lykke Li will also join the celebration. Kind of a music mixture to create awesome ambience, doesn’t it?

Australian musicians won’t let this chance to slip through them. Angus & Julia Stone, Chet Faker, Courtney Barnett, and the mighty Pond will make you won’t forget the day.

From the land where the festival happens are Enterprise, .GIF, Hanging Up The Moon, and Pastel Lite makes sure we have something to show.

Well, Next year’s Laneway Festival undeniably matters. Featuring a mix of Singaporean, Malaysian and international acts, the Singapore event will host its strongest line-up to date. Following a successful 2014 event with a crowd 10,000+ strong, Laneway Festival Singapore returns to the idyllic setting for the fifth year running.

Mac DeMarco. How to start it with him? He did some crazy stunts on stage, being drunk here and there, and have some quirky sparks. So, as we sat down with him a couple of months ago in 2013, we asked him about the songs that he grew up with. We thought it would be Weezer or Ryuchi Sakamoto, or we even thought he would put Bob Dylan. But as he wrote down the list, we were surprised with his songs! So here is the mixtape contains of songs that Mac Demarco grew up with.

Mac Demarco’s Personalised Playlist by Svanamix on Mixcloud

Mac DeMarco is a Canadian funny quirky guy with a strange sense of humor. He did things that feels wrong yet he have a heart to apologize for his behavior to his Mum. He is a romantic person, a sweet talker (Kiki is probably will be his last, who knows?!) and a smooth rocker. He”s also a weird skank, and he doesn”t give a shit. We”ve seen him three times last week, so we decided to ask him and his buds some regular stuffs.

How does it feel to have your album receive good feedback from various medias and now you are travelling across Europe and Asia. Did you imagine as a kid that you would grow up and make music, touring the world?

Mac : Feels great. Now we”re in kuala lumpur and people paying us a lot of money nowadays. I get a lot of under aged fans now, which is pretty strange and weird but also good. I’ve known I wanted to do music for a long time, ive been doing music since I was 15/16 and at one point I thought I was gonna be a loser if I didn’t go to university, everybody’s going to university but then I started playing shows all the time and I told myself look at those fu**** jokers going to university. I’ve always wanted to do music but it never seemed like a good idea, but now it seems sort of like a good idea but its still not the best. Whatever, who gives a sh*t anyway.

You’ve been complimented as quirkier version of John Mayer, with a cool taste of music to go with not having many conventional celebs in your inspirations list. How d’you describe yourself in terms of your music taste?

Mac : Like Bruce Wayne, half man half myth [Batman voice]. Nah, I’m just here to write some lyrics and have fun. I do have some conventional musicians in my inspirations list, maybe not John Mayer/Rick Johnson. If you ask me I gotta love the Beatles. Rock & Roll baby! I’d give it to him that motherf**ker can shred though.

Tell us how did you get into Captured Tracks? Did they find you or did you find them?

Mac : I’ve been recording years and years before I ever ran into Captured Tracks. I was with a couple of record labels before that and yea they helped a bit here and there but not as much as Capture Tracks did. With Capture Tracks it was funny. I’ve been touring round the states, meeting kids and yada-yada but I met this kid in Lexington, Kentucky and he ended up moving to Brooklyn. He worked with the guys that owns Capture Tracks record store (Mike). Before that I did put my sh*I up on Myspace, Bandcamp or whatever but it was when my song played at the store, and Mike came in and heard it playing and was like “What is this”. Then I got the weird e-mail from Capture Tracks. Kinda worked in a weird way. I did try to send it out to labels but I mostly sent them out to blogs because I was like ‘I gotta get famous out of this one’ so I mass send em’ out to blogs but it never really works though, they get so many dumb e-mails like that. The plan was pretty stupid. The thing I realized with the whole ordeal is that like, who gives a f*ck anyway. Don’t make the f*cking music if you just wanna put it on blogs. Who gives a sh*t. There you go.

You’re notorious for you wild on stage behavior. You’ve gotten naked on stage once even. So is there anything at the top of your head that you’ve wanted to do on stage that hasn’t been done yet?

Mac : It’s not really about what I want to do, because I’ve never wanted to get naked on stage. I’ve never wanted to do any of these things but they just “happen”. Even the cover sets in our shows, it kinda just happens. We didn’t casino really sit down and decided to cover these classic rock songs. I did have one thing I’ve always wanted to do on stage though, which is take a full piss but my friend Trevor beat me to it at our show in Montreal a couple of weeks ago. He was in his underwear on stage and took like a full-blown piss on stage, a full piss. I’ve always thought that would be really funny but, he did it. He took a piss in front of a thousand people in his underwear. It’s f*ckin weird.

Since that’s been done, what else do you have in mind?

Mac : Drinking a donkey’s cum would be really tight but I don’t know, the thought of blowing a donkey. It’ll be pretty cool if a donkey came in from the roof slowly declining down. Okay, this is how it would have to go. I’ll start with a whaling falsetto while the donkey comes down, already erect and his d*ick just comes in. Yea that would probably be it.

You’ve stormed the Canadian music scene off late. Does Canadian music inspire you to develop your music?

Mac : A lot of Canadian bands do, there’s a lot of great Canadian bands but the great ones are not the ones anybody from the rest of the world would know. I’m not going to bad mouth anybody but the side of music where the giants are is not where I feel like we’re a part of and most of our friends aren’t really a part of. Its weird, the Canadian music industry is weird. There are giant bands and there are really little bands. There’s no middle ground.

So if you could describe the Canadian music scene in one sentence, what would it be?

Pierce : P*ssy Lickin’ Fun.

Mac : That’s great actually yea, or if you want something less explicit I’d say…pretty close to The States.

You apologized to your mom because she saw your video on Youtube. What crossed your mind when she did and did you expect her to see it?

Mac : Yea, she listens to my music. At that point I already apologized in real life, it just gave me something funny to write about. It wasn’t even her that got so pissed off, it was my Aunt that was freaking out. I just thought it would be funny. I don’t think anybody would take that apology seriously. They’d probably take it as some form of bullshit.

You’ve once said in Fact Magazine that you feel as though you have the same effect on young adolescents like Weezer did in the 1990’s. Does Weezer have an influence to your music?

Mac : I like Weezer but I’ve never actually sat down and told myself “Yea im gonna write a Weezer song”. I enjoy Weezer for what it is though its never been something I wanted to emulate. Weezer for me when I was going up was big. Kids all round we’re like “Man this band is cool” but I’ve never actually seen them live. Young kids do treat us like that. They’re just like “Yea! Party boy!”.

 Are there any particular names whom you’ve been dreaming to collaborate with in the future?

Mac : Yea, definitely. Ryuichi Sakamoto, Shuggie Otis, Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen, Bruce Wayne and Bruce Willis. Yeap that’s about it. Bruce Willis will play the harmonica on my next song, check it out, coming out soon and its going to be called “Daddy’s Day Dream”.

When I listened to his albums this summer, first thing in mind was these albums were definitely worth listen. But to be honest I was never really interested to know who is him like in person, I’ve always wanted to surprise my self when it comes to relating music to its creator, let-the-tracks-speak-for-itself kinda thing. We’re about to see him at Pitchfork festival this year but reality brought us back home, so when we knew his doing Asian tour, we just have to see who’s Mac.

We’re lucky enough to be able to review some cool festivals around, including Clockenflap Festival this year. Mac was one of the line ups on the last day, so one thing we’ve noticed was this guy likes to blend with the crowd. After their Hongkong trip, they played in Bangkok, where he and his band buds learnt how to differentiate lady boy with a regular girl.

So, last Saturday night we arrived at Home Club, Singapore when the two Kiwi’s Carb on Carb played their rock setlist, they just directly heated up the stage on the first place. Not long after them 4 piece Filipinos indie band, Bee Eyes, went up stage with their fun rock songs and a bit of pop and slacky style, loosened up the crowd. Consisting of guitarists Julius and Idris, along with drummer and bassist Miguel and Diego they played “Someone Else”, and provide what “The Best Band In The Philippines” had to offer.

Bee Eyes was pretty much impressed us, but since we were excited to see the guy who sings “Ode to Viceroy” we put down our beers and straight to the front stage. Ok not that front, but front enough to have the opportunity to touch his butt (d’uh!). We were totally amazed by how sweet his songs are, yet how crazy he is in real. The only thing on my mind was who the fuck is this guy? Mac alongside with his (also) talented band buds, Pierce McGarry (bassist / Walter TV and weird video maker), Peter Sagar (guitarist / Homeshake) and Joe McMurray (drum) totally introduced us to the wilderness of Canada. Remind us again where the heck Drake comes from?

The setlist was pretty much the same as in the festival or other small gigs like in Bangkok. Which is very nice, it gave the impression that he doesn’t differentiate the crowds. Starting with “Cooking Up Something Good”, continued with “The Stars Keep On Calling My Name”, “Rock and Roll Night Club”, “Ode to Viceroy”, “Annie”, “Freaking Out the Neighborhood” and making funny jokes (while trying hard to make the crowd go wild) with “Baby’s Wearin’ Blue Jeans” and did his thing by crowd surfing in the middle of “Still Together”. The Gig was pretty much chilled out rock n roll night. After the gig we had the chance to chat with the bands. So might as well say saturday night well spent!

Not much different with Singapore, when we headed to The Bee, in Kuala Lumpur. Just face it, nobody likes Mondays. It’s always a day associated with stress, anxiety, and fatigue but this monday wasn’t just any ordinary monday. After our interview with Mac and his buds, we knew today will be the day where fans of Mac DeMarco can remember as the night where they can go back to the rock and roll night!

Bee Eyes was also opening for Mac DeMarco that night. After an eight song set, Bee Eye’s gets the crowd to let DeMarco know that they’re ready for him. And from the moment DeMarco and the band walked up the stage we foresaw the show to be as raw as possible. “We love rock & Roll, and we hope you do too” professed DeMarco to greet the floor. He unhooked the barrier lines and called forward every soul in the room to move up (not forgetting to smoke in the midst) and start rocking to “Cookin Up Something Good”, this time “Rock & Roll Night Club” came next, with an end unexpected to all. Pierce wrapped up the song with a screamo-ish spinoff, engulfing our inner rock demons to claw out. 3 songs in and it’s already a floor-quaking show. DeMarco loves his casual intermissions between songs to interact with the floor, or call it smoke breaks even, they even dedicated the next song to the couture brand, Dolce & Gabbana. Gracing the band with “Ode to Viceroy”, Lead guitarist, DeMarco shreds an intense guitar solo, one of many at least. Jumping across the stage and kneeling down, emotion is well apparent throughout the set.

After playing “Annie”, the venue became an open mic night. DeMarco decides to “Shake it up” and pass the mic to someone in the crowd, singing along to “Stairway To Heaven”. By this point it was like being in their very own garage chilling together drinking beers listening to their music. The lack of boundaries gave the opportunity for the crowd to interact with the band with freedom. “My Kind Of Woman” followed after, relaxing the crowd while they sing to every lyric.

Climaxing the show with “She’s Really All I Need” meshed together with an electrifying guitar solo emulating the greats. From here on, it was full on rock and roll, but with a twist. Pierce announces that there were only two songs left, evidently lying. Stirring things up and not following the rule book is just their style, not to mention the extensive swearing to cherry the feel. Stringing together his song together with a cover of Status Quo’s “Takin’ Care Of Business” slyly changing the lyrics from “You get up every morning/From your alarm clock’s warning” to “Wake up in the morning/Suck my dads cock”. Jumping from Limp Bizkits “Break Stuff” to The Beatles “Blackbird” to a heavy metal scream of “Stairway To Heaven”. It didn’t make sense, but it somewhat did because the audience was just into the whole ensemble reciprocating DeMarco’s humor. Whatever you’d expect to see at a gig is present, but twisted in all sorts and shapes to DeMarco’s liking, ending his set crowd surf during “Still Together”

Justifying DeMarco’s statement at the start, we do love rock and roll. Infused with his slackery, sloppy style of music. He just bled out effortless charisma and charm, turning this not-so-ordinary Monday to a raw, interactive massacre of fun.

By the end of the days, we know now there’s something noteworthy about Canada besides Ryan Gosling, Robin Scherbatsky and Chuck Hughes.

[Text: Dorothy/Zafran. Photo: Dorothy/Kristy Chong]

Mac DeMarco is a Canadian musician born in Duncan, British Columbia. Raised in Edmonton, DeMarco moved to Vancouver after graduating high school. He is now based in Montreal. Formerly recording as Makeout Videotape, he has produced two solo albums, Rock and Roll Nightclub and 2. His style has been described as “blue wave”,or “slacker rock”.He is a multi-­‐ instrumentalist as well as a multimedia artist. The album 2, was received well by critics, garnering a “Best New Music” designation from Pitchfork Media. One of his songs was licensed

Mac Demarco : 8pm, 9th December 2013, RM 38 at The Bee, Publika

Another Montreal’s musician we wanted to see this year is no other than the off-kilter pop artist Mac DeMarco. With his jizz jazz no serious dream pop yet everyone can enjoy tunes, thanks to the inspiring Singapore online media Other Sounds we all can enjoy his live performance at Home Club – Singapore on Saturday, 7 December 2013.

Mac DeMarco will be Other Sounds’ third show since its foray into concert promotion earlier this year, following the success of Melbournian garage trio ScotDrakula’s appearance at the website’s launch party in January, and the raucous and rock ‘n’ roll show with Dune Rats in May. The show will be part of Mac DeMarco’s first ever Asian tour, taking him through five countries before he heads to Australia for December’s Meredith Music Festival, where he will take the infamous stage alongside veterans Brian Jonestown Massacre and Deerhunter.

Set to take the stage alongside Mac DeMarco and previously announced boy/girl punk duo carb on carb, this show is shaping to be an exciting triple bill of international proportions, with Canada, Philipines, and New Zealand all represented on the massive line-up.

And what better way to start the hump day than with an absolute gem of a tune, brought to you by our newest addition to the line-up for December’s Mac DeMarco show, Filipino psychedelic pop band Bee Eyes.

Mac DeMarco with carb on carb
Home Club
Saturday, 7 December 2013
8pm
$40 (standard), $50 (at the door)