on judgement

- ABC band is made up of cocky, arrogant individuals (because they’re more successful than my own band, and don’t deserve to be).- Miss CCB sleeps around, she’s such a cheap slut (because I’ll never be able to have her).

- KKJ organizer is unreliable, unfair, and only out to swindle your money without caring about the gig (because they made me pay for tickets I agreed to sell but did not).

- XYZ band ripped off ABC band, got no originality (you should listen to my band instead, we suck but we’re original).

- *insert mainstream festival* is prejudiced against *insert underground genre* (I want to be underground because it’s cool but I want to be mainstream so I can be famous and popular at the same time)

- Visa is a pretentious jerk who thinks he’s damn great because he speaks about what’s on his mind (how dare he), is such a poser for going to gigs and supporting bands that he likes (the bootlicking suck-up), and is friendly to people who watch his band (discriminating pussy-chaser).

Oh wait, what?

Please think for yourselves, guys. Hasty judgement helps nobody. It is not easy to be in the public eye, where your mistakes are magnified and your contributions generally overlooked. Every gesture or action can easily be misinterpreted.

We barely know ourselves, what do we know about people we don’t even really know personally?

Hold your judgement until you get to know the situation properly and hear all sides of the story, and you will be a happier, more mature and respected individual. Insulting others or refusing to give chances makes life very selfish, secluded and unpleasant.

We all make mistakes, we all succumb to temptation and we all sometimes develop ugly ulterior motives- selfishness is an inherently human trait. But at the end of the day, we all want to be happy doing the things we love, surrounded and remembered by the people who care.

This is an open apology to anybody and everybody I have been quick to judge or label, I am sorry for any wounds I unknowingly caused. It isn’t easy being in the public eye, and it isn’t easy being judged, and I can see that now.

Cheers,
Visa

Flybar & Ronin!

I got there halfway through the first couple of songs in time to catch Ian, Ben and the Flybar guys rocking out on the Powerstage. In attendance were Levan Wee, Leonard Soosay, Cigarette Sex, Bad Obsession and many others. It was my first time catching Flybar and I thought they were pretty good! I wasn’t sure what to expect, though the tracks on their myspace are sweet.

(photograph courtesy of Dong)

They were fun and rocking out, and had quite a sizable crowd! Frontman Ian tickled with his antics (most notably with a Guitar Heroes controller), showing that rockstars aren’t above poking a little fun at themselves. He also delivered a passionate short speech urging the crowd to support local music.

The most notable thing about Flybar, I thought, was lead guitarist Jon Ong. He has some tasty tone and licks! Very powerful and polished. Apart from his playing and Ian’s energetic antics, the band was a little subdued, letting their music do the talking.

The main reason I came down of course, was to catch Ronin! I cannot be objective about this- I am a huge Ronin fanboy. These are the guys that introduced me to local music, to rocking out and standing up for what you believe in. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for those guys, and I still found myself getting abit of a shiver running into them.

(photograph courtesy of Dong)

It was great to see the guys again, although I felt that their set was tainted with bad sound. I’m not sure what’s the reason for it, as the Esplanade Powerstage usually has great sound, but the vocals and lead guitar were buried under the mix and everything was blaringly bassy (and coming from a bass player, you know that’s bassy!)

Even still, it was really good to see them having fun- covers like Motorhead’s Ace of Spades and Cream’s Crossroads were rocking! They played a series of slow covers (perhaps too many slow songs, for my taste), but showed that they’re still tight and actually have some great vocal harmony. It was great to hear their old originals like Money and Anywhere. The finale ending of All Around The Watchtower was brilliant.

It was nice to see them not take themselves too seriously, talk rubbish and crack jokes. They’re still the jokers I remember.

I think they’re still a great band. They just seem to be lacking a little bit of drive or purpose, like they’ve got nothing to say or prove apart from saying “We’re still around and we can still go on without the mad frontman”. But surely this takes time. I hope they find it, whatever it is, and I will be behind them all the way. We’ve still got a bunch of talented musicians, fun-loving cocksters and good rock songwriting on our hands.

DO WHAT THOU WILT!

heaven sent

(This is a song for the girl I had a huge crush on… but doesn’t care about me at all. I’m sure we all have these crushes.)

I write to you, inside my head
these words to you I haven’t said
your smile is so contagious
your smile is so contagious

I bet my life you’re heaven sent
you make me feel inadequate
your laughter makes me go weak
your laughter makes me go weak

oh dear, I can’t seem to find a way out of
this mess, oh what am I talking about
oh dear, I can’t seem to find a way out
would you please come and

let me out
set me free
we could be this way forever
we could be this way forever

let me out
set me free
we could be this way forever
we could be this way forever

I know that you don’t feel the same
this life is funny with it’s cruel games
I’ll love you always, anyway
I’ll love you always, anyway

In time I’ll learn to look back and smile
and think that this was just a silly crush
that’s not how I feel tonight
that’s not how I feel tonight

let me out
set me free
we could be this way forever
we could be this way forever

let me out
set me free
we could be this way forever
we could be this way forever

Armchair Critic

(excerpts from Armchair Critic’s blog, on www.myspace.com/armchaircritic)

BUY MARCH’S LIME MAGAZINE!
Last Updated: 23/02/08

Buy LIME! There’s a FREE CD compilation of local bands on it, so for $3 you get a funny magazine and lots of great local music! And what’s most important is this- by buying the magazine, you send a message to the local media that you want more local music represented! Which is absolutely AWESOME! (Thank you for initiating this, Levan Wee!)

In other news, we’re still on break! Visa and RG are having their progress tests and Boon will be having his common tests soon afterwards. We’re going to be reworking some of our songs such as Mocktail Love and Nights Amidst to be alot more… well, you’ll have to wait and see to find out.

Missing you guys and REALLY looking forward to be back onstage, the boys of Armchair Critic

TALK COCK SING SONG PLAY MAHJONG
Last Updated: 21/02/08

Hello Everybody! This is where we’ll update you guys on anything that’s going on, anything at all.

Boon just turned 18 last month, and also got his first stitches from an elbow during a soccer match! Ouch! He’s also been really busy with JC life. He’s an orientation faciliator at CJC, so if you’re posted there, you just might see him! Go say hi!

RG got a girlfriend! Aww. We suspect he found her on a farm in Myanmar. Wherever he did, they’re really cute together. Plus, she seems to be more intelligent than him (which isn’t that difficult to be) and makes the best jokes.

Visa has been crying tears into his pillow on his lonely bed, now the only singleton in the band. How times have changed! He is also now a passionate atheist, having read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Those of you who have been with us for the long run (we love you, you know who you are) have rightfully noticed that we weren’t anywhere near usual form at our past three shows or so. We apologize tremendously. We owe you our best when we’re onstage, and going up unprepared and unrehearsed is terribly unprofessional and really quite disrespectful to you, our audience.

We’ve just been terribly busy with school and work and countless other things. Boon in particular has tonnes of things to juggle, and has barely time to sleep these days. We haven’t had the chance to jam, rehearse, or just plain chill out together like we usually do. So we cancelled a few shows to take some time off, because we owe it to you and ourselves.

Life is so stressful! We stumbled upon some old videos of us jamming back early last year when we were just starting out, and we were having so much fun. We’ll be taking some time to find that again amongst ourselves, to really just have fun with no expectations. Because at the end of the day, that’s why we do this. To make a difference to each other, and to you.

We will be free to play shows after Boon’s exams in mid-March, so feel free to book us then!

We will be heading into the studios in March to resume work on the Hello World! EP! Budget and time constraints haven’t been kind, and we thank you so much for being patient.

In the mean time, do check out some of the local bands we’ve been listening to! Slathe has some great guitar work, and the kiddos are even younger than us! Sea Bed Sound has got the infectious dance groove you can’t resist. And of course, we’re all waiting impatiently for The Fire Fight’s return. B-Quartet’s full length album is THE SEX, and we’ll see you there when they play the Esplanade Powerstage soon! OH and come down to Timbre next Wednesday to catch our friends Plushfools, we’ll be there to support them so we can all get some beer and pizza together.

Till we meet again, with lots of love, the boys of Armchair Critic

PS: ARSENAL IS GOING TO WIN THE BPL! MUAHAHAHA.

hello!

I woke up so late today, like 3pm! I was actually up around 10pm but kept going back to bed. Oh my god it is 5pm already! Alright I’m going to have a quick lunch then head out to buy LIME, see y’all soon.

I’ve been listening to alot of heavier music recently and there is no fathomable reason for it.

Anybody want to form a HXC band?

a message from the local music scene

(visa: Here is a message i’d like you guys to read)

This is Levan here, the ex-Ronin guy and the fella currently working in LIME magazine as a journalist.

I’m here to make a plea with all of you guys out there, every single one of you, from the big bands to the small ones, from the old-timers to the newcomers, everyone. So please if you have 5 minutes to spare, please read on.

As some of you might know already, I recently posted on SOFT requesting for bands to submit their songs for the upcoming LIME CD Compilation. Basically it’s a compilation of 30 local bands on one CD that comes with every issue of the magazine. I’m happy to say that many of you guys submitted your songs, and we were able to gather up enough great acts to release something that I’m sure both local scene veterans and newbies will get into. For the more established acts, there’s everything from Caracal to B-Quartet, West Grand Boulevard to Allura, and then there are the underground metalheads and hardcore fanatics like Oshiego (legends in their own right!) and bands from the Lion City Hardcore posse, plus tons more. There are also plenty of Baybeats bands that made the fray. It’s a delightful collection of 30 local acts both new and old, and it was a joy to listen to from start to finish.

Let me be really honest about the process of getting the CD done – it wasn’t easy. Within the media industry, there are tons of obstacles we had to overcome to even get the release of the free CD approved. For one thing, most of the ‘higher ups’ have the impression that supporting local music is a dead end street, that it is something that isn’t profitable, isn’t worth the while, and will be greeted by a general disinterest from the public. We fought really hard to get this done and approved, and we’ll happy to say that with this CD, that chance was granted, that one chance to prove them wrong. It was also largely thanks to the good turnup at LIME Sonic Bang that gave us (The editorial team) the leverage to stand up and say “Look, there are people out there who listen to local music. Just look at the crowd. Don’t tell us that there isn’t any support. Don’t tell us that it isn’t worth the while!”

My plea here is simple and it’s straightforward. Local bands have bled and worked their asses off to get these recordings done, they’ve sacrificed a large portion of their time and money just for that glimmer of hope that the masses will give them the support they dream of. That local musicians won’t always be losing out to the Britney Spears and the Westlifes and etc. There is so much hope they have in the face of such adversity, in a country that greets most bands with a lukewarm unappreciative response – a conception that if you’re local, you’re just ‘not as good as the international acts’. To be honest, I won’t say that ALL 30 acts are up to an international level just yet (but a large majority are), but I’d definitely vouch for the fact that there are plenty of great bands getting darn close to that mark, and all they need is a little support and nod of approval to make that leap, to make that difference.

When the CD is released with the next issue of LIME come the end of the week (it’ll be available in shops everywhere probably by Friday or this weekend), I urge every one of you to pick up a copy and check these bands out. It’s only 3 bucks afterall, 3 bucks for 30 songs – the mag itself is 3 bucks, so the CD is essentially a freebie. i’d say that’s a steal if I ever saw one. I can give you my personal guarantee that I don’t earn ANY profits or commission for any sale. NONE of us in the editorial team will receive ANY such benefits (We’re too ‘lowly’ in the food chain for that lol).

But the consequence of your action is clear. With high sales this month, with a good response and with positive support, it will send a clear message to upper management that the path LIME and myself has taken is true – that despite the many obstacles and hindrances that prevent local music from fully hitting the mainstream, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We need your support. We need you to put your money where your mouth is. For years, local scenesters have complained about the lack of support from the media in this country. And now that support is here, staring you in your faces. For the life of me I can’t recall a time ever (not since BigO anyway) a mainstream magazine has EVER released a CD compilation of local acts to the masses – 30,000 copies printed to be distributed NATIONWIDE. But it has happened, and it will happen again if you spend your 3 bucks to show that you care for the scene, that you care that it grows and you care that people sit up and pay attention to the many talented musicians that we have here.

With high sales and support, it will give us leverage to urge the upper management to provide us with more funds to continue supporting local music, be it organizing more big scale gigs for both the bands and the fans, or releasing more giveaways to encourage more people to get into local music, or hey, there’s even a possibility of putting a local band on the cover for the first time in the history of a widely distributed magazine in Singapore. The significance of that happening is HUGE – it’s a major step forward. But it can only happen with your help and support! It’s cliched to say this, but ‘help us help you’. A ripple in an ocean can become a tsunami.

So please, come the end of this week, look up the mag on shelves. If it isn’t there, ask the owner why it isn’t. And if they really don’t have it, seek somewhere else to get it. Once again I promise you this from the bottom of my heart, there are no hidden intentions from me or anyone in the team. There are no secret benefits we are reaping from anyone. The sole reason we decided to push for this CD was to have 30,000 Singaporeans pick up a copy of the magazine and check out the CD and go “Hey you know what? Local music ain’t half bad.”. It’s more than ‘ain’t half bad’ – it rocks!

I don’t believe in being jaded, I don’t believe in waiting for opportunities to come to you. We have to all get up and CREATE those opportunities for ourselves. And we can only do it unified. There ae tons of people who go “Support the scene!” when what some are really saying is “Support my band!”. But this is the perfect chance to show the rest of the country we can show true support for what we preach about.. It’s time to get off our a$$es and show them what we’re talking about! A change in perception, a step in a thousand miles. Have faith, show support, and I promise you, everything we have bled for, everything we have cried for, every dream of every band will be at least one small tiny step closer to reality.

Tell your friends, tell your friend’s friends, tell your family and your cousins and that girl or guy you have a crush on. Every single person counts!!! And through the word of mouth from these people will we have to chance of increasing the population of the local scene to something bigger and beyond the ‘usual crowd who shows up at shows’

Thank you for your time guys

Levan Wee

happy valentine’s day!

It’s the first time i’m single on Valentine’s Day- also known as Single Awareness Day Full of Underage Couples Kissing (S.A.D.  F.U.C.K).

I jest. Mine was pretty uneventful. It was fun at school, and I went for a jam afterwards with people who stay around me. After this I’m going to Simpang Bedok with Po Liang.

Romantic!

Anyway, whoever you are and whether you’re single or not, have a Happy Valentine’s Day. You should love everybody in your life every single day, and boycott the evil spending that Mr. Corporate wants you to do with the overpriced flowers and gift.

But nevertheless, it’s a day with good intentions, so have fun! Blog more after supper.

ooooh baby

I realise that I don’t blog as much as I do because I’m trying to take this way too seriously!

Which isn’t very fun. And I think having fun is pretty damn important.

Went out with RG and Po Liang today after school and had a hearty chat about our priorities.

And some other funny things that I probably shouldn’t mention.

Will write more often.

wake up your weekend!

I missed the first day, but I managed to go for the second and third and it was good stuff!

I caught half of Vertical Rush’s set, and they are still an amazing band. I can’t believe that I’ve been following local music since the Ronin days in 2005 and never heard or heard of them. Angels gives me the shivers. Brilliant songs, very tight. Marcus is great on the guitar, and I’ve never seen anybody play the drums with as much conviction and spirit as Daren.

Winterhalter is a traumatising band. I don’t want to talk about it. My eyes and ears felt violated after the set and I got quite a headache.

But all was saved by The Fire Fight! They were brilliant as ever, and there was some sad news- Josh is going overseas to Shanghai for work for the next four months or so, so we will not be seeing them rock the stage for quite some time. And Iain tragically lost his iPod too.

Josh broke his string right into the opening of the first song, and he was immediately handed another guitar (Marcus’s Telecaster). By the end of the song, his first guitar was back, and restrung! I was absolutely blown away by their crew’s efficiency. It looked really professional and efficient. Wow!

The highlight of the set would have been The Train Song, which had Josh jumping into the crowd and dancing along. The crowd was awesome, save a few mats who’d make stupid noises in the middle of slow, dreamy parts, and we were all singing and dancing along like nothing else mattered. Brilliant. “When you go home tonight, you will leave here feeling satisfied,” were Josh’s words at the beginning of the set, and The Fire Fight certainly fulfilled their promise.

I’m sorry to say that I had to miss Sky In Euphoria’s set the next day, and I came just in time to hear everybody talking about how awesome they were. Wish I could have made it.

AVA did pretty good, alot better than when I last caught them at LSB. They sounded abit shaky at the start, but got better as they got their steam going. The crowd didn’t seem really into it initially- I’m guessing it’s because the ground was wet and grainy and absolutely not conducive for excessive movement. But as they belted out solid material like Crestfallen, Morning, new material (“If Nu-Rave isn’t the shit, I don’t know what is”) and Mirrors, they did prove that they are still awesome at what they do. I enjoyed myself . Looking forward to the full-length album!

armchair critic on 98.7fm!

Thank you everybody who helped make this happen.

It’s not a big deal, but it’s a milestone for us in pursuing our dreams.

To anybody who’s ever been at an Armchair Critic gig, added us on MySpace and done so many other things, we love you to bits. You know who you are.

Visa
Armchair Critic