Before got smashed by the big names, some local heroes got the chance to knock some socks. After Onnie kicked off the festival, Polka Wars, the band who won a slot to performed at Love Garage, did their debut at the festival beautifully. Next stop, The Brandals. The Brandals showed up with a drag queen wardrobe, long blonde hair, fuschia dress, and those womanly stuffs. We even thought if Karen O saw this, she might off to the stage and rip the night with the whole band. Well, The Brandals may wear like a crossdresser but they rocked up the stage with a not so womanly stage act. If You ask for something in a big number, You might love the next performers. This year, Love Garage put up a special segment by dragging three bands, Homogenic, Rock N Roll Mafia, and Agrikulture into one name called Love Garage Special Project. The twist for this project was very entertaining, especially when the bands mixed up their performance together.

After releasing their latest album Beta Love, Ra Ra Riot put Indonesia on their tour list before heading to Japan for Hostess Club Weekender. Wes Miles, Mathieu Santos, Milo Bonnaci, Rebecca Zeller and Kenny Bernard warmed up the stage with their songs from Beta Love such as Angel Please, Binary Mind, Beta Love (of course!), and they also played song from their old album Too Dramatic, Too Too Fast, and Can You Tell. Ra Ra Riot succeded in shaking the crowd.

As Ra Ra Riot left the stage, the crowd started cheering and chanting “Yeah Yeah Yeahs!” and also some dudes screamed “Karen O!” as if she would hear that. Two days ago, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (YYYs) also had a show in Singapore (along with Vampire Weekend and Band Of Horses), so We peeked on their setlist for Singapore and expected that Jakarta would be much greater since Brian Chase and Nick Zinner have been to Jakarta for couple of times, so they must be knowing how well to treat the crowd here, especially Zinner is a huge fan of Indonesia!

By the time Nick Zinner and Brian Chase stepped on to stage, the crowd exploded their throath and even became a huge explosive when Karen O, the super front woman, hopped in and screamed “Jakarta! – Indonesia! Yeah Yeah Yeahs!”. The band started off with song “Runaway” which was not really upbeat but quite took the crowd to sing along. Karen O’s wardrobe was definitely one thing that I also looked forward to (after her crazy stage act and the band), she wore a red Michael Jackson-like costume plus the tassel on the sleeves, coated in zebra print robe, a sunglasses, and a thing that I couldn’t name, it looked like a crown but it’s totally not a crown. As the intro of “Rich” hit in, Karen O did an opposite circus stuffs, she didn’t breathe fire. But water. That’s pretty splendid. Then YYYs performed their new song “Mosquito” from their latest album which is also titled Mosquito. Here came the seriously most throath killing song, “Art Star”, Karen O really nailed this song, even better than the studio version. The crazy stage act from Karen O kept happening for the rest of the show.

After the thirteenth song, “Turn Into”, Karen O went off the stage for a while and returned with the infamous studded black leather jacket (which Karen O wore on “Zero” music video). YYYs used a different version of Zero and when the song got in the bridge part, about three big eye ball baloons were thrown to the crowd.

The band went to backstage and the classic chanting “We want more!” happened. A couple of minutes later, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner returned to the stage and played “Maps” riff, Karen O also gave a short dedication speech said “I dedicate this song to Ismaya Live….” Then hit the stage with one of their best track from their debut album. The karaoke session started, since this is one of the songs that people are more familiar with the band. YYYs have performed fifteenth songs, We started thinking either the next song will be the last song or not, then the ear-blasting intro of “Date With The Night” played, we knew if the band played this song, this would be the show closer. the band have made the crowd lost their voice by singing along this song, when Karen O shot a Y-shapped confetti, it really put a cherry on top of their final act. Yeah Yeah Yeahs totally pulled the night off and shook Jakarta. Got a chance to witness Karen O’s stage act was something that worth it, since we knew the band almost made it to Jakarta on their “It’s Blitz” tour in 2010, but for some reason it didn’t happen. As we compared to their set in Big Day Out and Big Night Out, We think Yeah Yeah Yeahs have done more than an amazing job in Jakarta.

Over all, Dimensions Love Garage 2013 gave the crowd one of the best early valentine gift. The best local acts, Ra Ra Riot, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You missed it? Well, You have missed one hell of a good event this year. (Alcander Alonzo / Andriani N.P)

If we can quote from George Gerswhin that ”True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time..” ,  probably that prove whats happening right now in our local music scene. Time changes and we can get influences and ideas from so many places, some are just making it worst but some making the best of us out. Here are some of our local bands that we sees potentially giving their best out for this year.

STARS & RABBITS ( YK ) are an Indonesian folk music duo, formed in early 2011 in Yogyakarta. The group consisted of singer-songwriter Elda Suryani (born May 29, 1983) and musician Adi Widodo (born July 31, 1983). Their single ‘Worth It’ drew them attention from a small variety of communities in Indonesia and the United Kingdom, as part of the indie pop/folk scene. Stars and Rabbit engages a do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music is a melding of pop and folk influences with raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance.

Why? In this folk era which is getting bigger specially in Indonesia, this Jogja’s duo may have more attention because of the vocalist, Elda which previously was with supergroup EVO, have more soft and comfortable sound in this band.

contact:
+62 812 2704 0992 / +62 856 4380 4520 / link 

HIGHTIME REBELLION ( JKT ) A breath of fresh air with a unique breed between Brit pop, funk, folk, the psychedelic beat and baseline of House music, perfected with the sultry voice of its female vocalist, Indonesian indie band Hightime Rebellion, shapes a music genre of its own. Their upcoming album, which includes singles ‘Crest of Mind’, ‘Waking Hour’, ‘Writer in the Window’ and the notable ‘All Things Borrowed’, sounds like a Beatles-esque cover of Blondie songs with an atmosphere reminiscent of the Mamas and the Papas.

Hightime Rebellion gained early popularity and cult following through the club music scene such as Indo Dance Music Festival and Revive, transgressing to indie gigs namely JKT: Superbad!, RRREC Music Festival, Time Out on the Up BDG: Minimaliste, Interlude. They finally drew public attention through large events, such as Nylon Music Festival 2011, Trax FM Terusik Traxkustik 2011 and Java Rockin’land 2011.

Why? Maybe this is one of the bands that we heard mostly in every gigs in 2011. After releasing 3 of their singles last year, they promised to make their full studio album this year, as one of Jakarta’s band who got signed under FFWD Records their debut album will be one of the most anticipated this year by indie music listener.

contact:
Marine Ramdhani of FFWD Records at 0818220164 / hightime.rebellion@gmail.com / @hightimeband

POLKA WARS ( JKT ) is an alternative band which formed in early 2010. At first, this Jakarta-based band consists of 4 young men : Karaeng Raja Adjie, Billy Aulia Saleh, Giovanni rahmadeva & Xandega Tahajuansya. Polka wars will also be assisted by a variety of reliable producers with a variety of different backgrounds from Indonesia. The first is Uga Swastadi, who’s continuing his musical studies in US at the moment, to the various experimental / noise / hip hop musicians such as Rizky Auliya (Sawi Lieu, Sangsaka Worship) and Wing Narada Putra (Maverick ), with hope that they’ll got a wide range of song characteristics on their next release.

Why? The rising of folk era will be more competitive because of quite many old bands coming back this year or some of them maybe changing their genre to folk. So this band with some Mumford & Sons kinda style, can be another alternative band we should anticipated as the next big thing.

Contact
Deva +62 857 1686 3638 / +62857 1686 3638 / @polkawars

Roman Foot Soldiers ( JKT ) Like their hometown Jakarta, Roman Foot Soldiers is a blend of many eccentric musical characters. Such contrasts however didn’t produce a clash of creativity, but it did inspire the group to pursue a sound unique enough to satisfy all band members’ appetite.

As for the name of the band, it represents both their fascination for epic war films and solidarity. Six distinct pieces brought together by a common cause: a passion for music.

Why? The band was made in Vancouver, Canada and actually already released their EP titled Kitsilano with 2 singles and a video clip titled ‘You Make Me Feel Like Summer’, and in late 2011 they also released their new video clip titled ‘Waterfront’. We put them on our list is because beside of their good looking appearances and also their songs remind us of a France band, Phoenix

Contact:
link@romanftsoldiers / link 

The Triangle ( BDG ) With sounds of indie rock mixed with acoustic guitar, The Triangle apparently got much influences from many alternative music from Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkin, The National till Snow Patrol. With music that more using dark theme, Riko which we may know from Mocca band, making this band more authentically as dark yet melodically sounded, or as they say their music are “Masculine, sophisticated, grande, technical, and melodious”

This band itself is on the process of making new album, and they said they’re inspired by isolation theme, which we can hear from their first single “How Could You”.

Why? Riko which more recognise from the swing indie pop band Mocca, already make moves and get more attention from his twitter and social network strategy and got positive respond from his fans, so this year they are going to release their second single. Lets see if Riko and his band can erase the image of his pervious swing style band.

Contact
Vira Yudha 0818622344
Triangle Management
Jl. Ambon No.8 Bandung
contact@thetriangleband.com
@triangle_band / link

Deugalih & Folks After spending years setting his “solo career” into first gear—-post-Schizophones—-in 2010, Deugalih officially created another talented ensemble to accommodate his peaking interest in folk music.

On August 17th, 2011, their single album debut, Earth, has been released by Wastedrockers. The single “Earth” was actually an old song by Deugalih, written in 1998. The song then received a full make-over and rearrangement which later was rerecorded as their single debut. Earth begins the Deugalih & Folks’ journey to their debut LP next year. In the mean time, we hope you will enjoy the single “Earth”. (Dede Wastedrockers)

Free download here ► 

Why? Try to download their single ‘Earth’, and you will know why we put them on our list as one of the most anticipated local band which the debut worth to be waiting for this year.

Contact
+62 8180 900 9272 (Ricky Arnold) / deugalih@yahoo.com /  link

[rendha/othy]

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