Stunned That Something So Simple Can Be So Good

Marvin’s High Flying ALBUMS OF 2011

Let’s Start off with

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying birds

I might be biased but if there’s one album i’d find best to promote to unknowns , it is this one. I’d use the all-obscene streak of calling  it  ultimately  “ THe BEST SHIT IN THE WORLD”. The whole album itself is magnificent in every sense of the word and more. According to some magazines I am not allowed to namedrop here, “ It’s the best collection of songs since Morning glory. 4/5 Stars”. That itself is saying a lot cause what the Story(Morning Glory)? is the highest selling record in the Uk behind MJ’s “Thriller”, a bit of a pop history lesson there. But that’s the past, innit?  Looking on to your future being now. Fruit basket tampered, Oasis in shambles.  Liam, Gem and Andy’s with beady eye. Noel’s free of the shackles of yesteryears and here we have the most anticipated album since the 10 commandments.

Track by track guide.

1. Everybody’s on the run – You couldn’t start an album any better than this one, it builds up and down like a volcano waiting to burst but decided not too , but does eventually when you least expect it to be. With choral and orchestral accompaniment in this track and a belter of a vocals. One of my favorites, ever since the soundcheck version via youtube saw the light of day. Reminds me of a soundtrack to the greatest love movie never made. Nothing short or premature about it, it’s the full article. It’s timeless through and through. “ …Hang in there love, You’ve got to hold on, You’ve got to  be Strong enough for love…”

2. Dream on – A bit silly this one, but an enjoyable tune, indeed. I love it. Especially when the trumpet/horns and subtle shouts of “come on” kick in right at the end. It’s a bit of a willy wonka, I’m sat at the garden reading a book looking outside observing  the neighbours/family doing silly stuff kinda tune, cause they got no meaning you see. My siblings and I love this tune. it. “ …The tears you cried are only meant to flatter me..”

3. If I had a Gun – Possibly my favorite track of the album. If there was one song I would want to claim as my own, It’s this one( Now, where’s my time machine?). One of his best lyrics yet, very true to the soul, something that tugs you in the heart. “..Excuse me If I spoke too soon but my eyes have always followed you around the room..” Even the melody fits perfectly to the lyrics, cascades to a whole elevation. Stuffing different chord progressions into the same vocal melody. Nice trick, indeed. “ I’m holding on and waiting for the moment for my heart to be unbroken by the seams…”

4. The Death of you and Me – The lead single of the album. With themes of nostalgia, the longing to be somewhere else. Escapism. It’s a nice jazz shuffler with horn/trumpets/brass thrown into the mix. A nice change, settling down in a place, anywhere but here “..Let’s run away to sea forever we’ll be free, free to spend our whole lives running..”

5. (I wanna Live in a Dream In My) Record Machine – I like this tune.  It’s very atmospheric with kids chatter greasing the gears. Builds up to orchestral and choral brilliance and a sprinkle of genius. Again, the them of escapism, with a lot more in your face. The last coda is sickening mind blowing(take note! Safety belts for the mind. Check!).. “ I want a piece of the world and you can’t make me spit it out..”

6. Aka…What a Life! – Another unexpected track of the chief. This song is a grower. I would imagine this is what John Lennon would have sounded if he did Dance in this era we’re in. Different beats, still singing. “..It may be a dream but it tastes like poison..”

7. Soldier boys and Jesus Freaks – Politically driven. Very the kinks-esque tune. I Think this is the weakest of the lot. But no worries, it’s still worth the listen. I could relate to the distaste of political figures and fakes who put on a religious facade when they’re out. “For soldier boys and jesus freaks, they go to heaven on their holidays..”

8. Aka…Broken Arrow – A tale of an angel coming down and ease my troubled mind. I like this. I’m sure in futures time, this will be one of the more underrated tunes. I think it’s about love, wanting to be saved and wanting to be alone at the same time. Its also a transition from running from the old place and into the new. “..If I die in a dream then let me live my life..”

9. (stranded on) The Wrong Beach – Another filler tune but would sound amazing live I suppose. Sometimes, in the course of the journey , we may get lost and lose our way there. And i think this is what the sentiments of the song’s about. “ Falling..I’ll meet you on the way down, I’ll meet you on the rebound”

10. Stop the Clocks –  I had chills down my spine on the first few listens of this one. Love everything about it, the lyrics, the melody. The idealism which verges the impossible. The closure. An epic one, indeed. Builds up nicely on acoustic and then accompanied by choral accompaniment and for the last 1 minute , a whole lotta noise before a nice stop. “ Lock the box and leave it all behind, on the backseat of my mind..”

And that’s it for now….

 

 

Homemade Stew

•  lamb stew meat(or pork belly)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 3 large onions, quartered
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 (411 g) can beef broth(or chicken broth, either one)
•  salt ‘n pepper to season
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 celery
• 3-5 Tomatoes
• minced fresh parsley(optional, meant for garnishing)
• minced chives(optional)
• fresh thyme
• Rosemary
• Mixed Herbs
• Half a tablespoon of cinnamon/ 1 stick
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• half a glass of wine(or Guinness if you’re feeling a wee bit Irish)
• 1 bay leaf

All Herbs aren’t quantified, added to preference. You can throw a tree of ‘em if you must.

In fact, veges, quantity of meat and other ingredients too are added to preference.

In a large mixing bowl place the lamb, salt, pepper, and flour. Toss to coat the meat evenly. Heat the frying pan. Add butter(or oil), Rosemary, 1/4 portions of the Onion and Garlic. Set a side the browned meat.

Heat the pot, chuck in the remaining and leftover onions and garlic until they begin to color a bit. Deglaze the pot with 1/4 of water. Set in the beef stock, lamb meat, sugar and herbs  into the pot. Let it simmer for , let’s put it at 7-14 minutes( perhaps, slightly longer). By now, you’re stew will be smelling pretty darn nice. It’ll take a huge amount of effort to resist yourself from not walloping the whole pot.

Now it’s time to muscle-up the stew, add the tomatoes, carrots, celery and any other veges you see fit for a stew. Add your preferred choice of alcohol , red wine or Guinness. Let it simmer. Check the stew in time intervals of 10 minutes. Let it cook till you’re satisfied with it. Garnish it with chopped parsley. Ready to serve.

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**For pork belly, I browned them with soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar with the pan glazed with butter,onion and garlic. The rest of the steps are pretty much similar. And I added Chillies for the pork belly stew( 1 fresh chilli or 2 deseeded dry chillies will be fine).

AKA…Indie Song Track 1

After decades of not being able to write anything close to an “Imagine” or “All you need is love” , I’ve finally manage to set myself into default settings. And  by default, I’ve finally done something I’m much more accustomed with(or rather suited for)

Indie-esque music. Simple. Direct. No where near beating around an amazonian bush. And I do all my stuff independently anyway. I don’t recall McCartney being across the other side of the room when I write, cause that wouldn’t be indie at all, that would be Awesome.

But see, I’ve never actually watch any of these poor man’s idea of what you call tunes, grow with the years anyway. They’re always thrown into the back-burner or the recycle bin if we’re being technical, after I’m done with it(they’re usually ¼ or ½ done).  Maybe a couple or few are brilliant, but It wouldn’t do justice recording them using a laptop and a cheap ass mic previously functioned and bought as a skype ordeal. And to conclude it all, 90% of them will never see the light of day.

Perhaps, this one has potential to grow. I wanna see it grow. It’s only 2 odd minutes long. And I’ve not added any guitar riffs cause the talent I have or lack off with the guitar is too shallow and repetitive sometimes. I could use the same ‘champagne supernova’ bit for every song I’ve ever attempted to write. The singing’s a bit off too cause I hate multiple takes on vocal parts, borderline tedious.

Well, to watch it grow, you need to be emotionally invested in it. And to be so, you  need to have details written down. Lyrics don’t mean a great lot, but they will definitely change with thyme. But in a nutshell, it’s about having a dream and not wanting or having the needs to pursue it and being content on just  having it on your mind till the dream(or the dreamer) fades away.  I wanna be Batman, but  Gotham City does not exist, and let’s face it, I’m no where near half  as rich and luxurious as Steve Jobs’ Golden Retriever. D’you know what I mean?

Musical influences are definitely out of the usual , cause the songs written before this were highly influenced by Oasis/Coldplay/The Beatles/The Kinks/ Radiohead/The Small Faces/U2. This time around its The Kooks. Very sunny,indied(pun).  The Kooks are fronted by Frodo Baggins and his mates, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadock Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. Okay, I’m joking. Those were the hobbits from Lord of the Rings. To listen to The Kooks, click on these links;

• Eskimo Kiss
• Junk of the heart(Happy)

and If you could be bothered, this is that track that needs growing. With thyme, it could be nice, hopefully it surpasses puberty soon.

Radio Retaliation

Some times driving alone is such a breeze in life. Turning off the radio, listening to your mind speak, liberating the voices in your head.

Indie and bored

A day off from work and this was what came out of it besides the occasional sleep which goes hand in hand with chilling real hard.

This is not the finish article. Lyrics are in its premature stage too. Everything’s a draft these days.

Trapped in a room, in a cocktail of feelings…blablayadayada

I’ll take my car and Drive real far

2 huge encounters this year itself, to add on to a previous plate of major car accidents(only once in ’09 to be precise which came up to 30 k worth of insurance paid repairs)

Well, regardless, the ones I had this year  ended with me unscathed, semi heroic even if you put it in an exaggerated kinda manner. You know , just like that line , ” what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.

Sometimes, this sorta things need documentation. I’m doing it here.

First encounter, during my birthday period. Driving back from pavilion, with friends. Was driving slightly reckless(I admit) and somehow annoyed a group of malay punks in a kelisa, cause i nearly hit them but the fact is I did not. Initial stage of it, they stopped their car right in front of me, which then forced my car to stop as well. They wanted a fight/money/to stop somewhere where It was not safe I presume. I did not adhere to them, so, I just moved on with my car. Got tailgated by those punks but manage to lose them when I drove past a policeman and wriggled my way into a friend’s condo. Well done.

 

2nd encounter(also within the month of February), was driving back home from KL to JB with 5 people in my myvi on the north-south highway. Was raining heavily coming in the Negeri Sembilan zone. I’d like to emphasize that I was not driving fast. Was in the middle lane, and out of nowhere a BMW not very far in front of me on the right most lane lose control and spun 360, hit the rails , bounce back of the rails, and spun another 720 heading onto my car bumper. Natural spontaneous instincts played a vital part and I manage to manoeuvre around the Beemer. Close call. Dodge a Bullet.Totally Stuntcock. Survived.

 

Thank God.

 

There, noted.

 

To be frank, I just witnessed some uneducated bozos smashing a lady’s vios/camry rear windshield while driving past Bukit Jalil stadium. Hence, the urge to write ‘em out.

 

All that, you can’t leave behind

Even the loudest whisper is incomparable to the softest voice.

Well, you don’t always have to be right, right?

I hate mixed days, neither here nor there, just like today, wednesday, furthest most from the weekend.

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Sometimes you can’t make it on your own.

Mine’s on the 45

The everyday homework from now on.

Ironing 2 shirts a day?  ”45″

“45″ – signifies the number of minutes one takes(me)  to complete a simple task in a theoretical time frame of  ”10″ or less.

 

Topman by day, Iron man by night.

 

Sleepified.

The Cool Hunter

Never Thought that the site, cool hunter would be an amazing platform for discovering new, fresh, underrated and indie music.

If any way you’re tired of today’s music,(and when I said “today’s music”, (I meant the shit you’re exposed to on the radio nowadays),

Listen to this :

• Bon Iver – Holocene
• Lana Del Rey – Video Games
• Penguin Prison – The worse it gets
• Gotye – Save me
• Breakbot – Baby I’m Yours
• Ryan Wood – Thought of you
• The pains of being pure at heart – The Body

If you are by anyhow confused, it goes in the format of  ’artist’- ‘song title’.

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On a separate note if you will, I saved the best for last

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Perhaps, one of Noel’s Best written stuff. The lyrics are insanely blinding.

Regardless of its notion, whether it’s unrequited love or requited love, it’s definitely one of the best love songs into the new decade, if not, the best. Something you can’t ignore, indefinitely.

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Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – If  I had a Gun

 ”…Excuse me if I spoke to soon
My eyes have always followed you around the room..”

Scallops

I have no idea what it’s about but voila’ ,

 

Failed attempt at food presentation.

Butter-Fried Scallops with herbs and Cream sauce

It taste alright laa…. I guess , But it’s nowhere close yet t0 the best shit in the world