February 2012
29 posts
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News: Adele Gets Cut Off During Acceptance Speech,...
Image: Daily Mail
After winning six Grammys, the charming and bubbly Adele was visibly emotional when she picked up a Brit Award for Album of the Year. Halfway through her acceptance speech, the 23-year-old got even more emotional, this time on the negative end, when host James Corden interrupted her to introduce Blur.
With the crowd booing at what looks like the show producer lack of respect...
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The Monthlies: March
The local music season heats up in March as seen exclusively on Kiss My Culture’s The Monthlies. Expect to catch current and legendary acts from Duran Duran to Foo Fighters, and Jessie J to Olivia Newton John. To add on to the already schedule-boggling list, Timbre Rock & Roots and Mosaic Music Festival will also take place next month.
To make life easier for you, I have included event...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Feb 20-26)
Judas Priest “Epitaph” Farewell World Tour with Lamb of God Fort Canning Park l $140-250 from Sistic Feb 20, 7pm
The heavy metal legends take to the stage at Fort Canning for this double-bill. A momentous event especially for Judas Priest fans as this will be the last time they will be on tour.
Dashboard Confessional (Solo Acoustic) Esplanade Concert Hall l $48-98 from Sistic...
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Bar Review: Tree
[Time Out Singapore] We got lost trying to find Tree, and no wonder – the signage is way above eye level on the pillar next to the establishment’s black-matted front, and the windows are so small you wouldn’t realise a restaurant and bar reside within. There are two entrances to the establishment – it’s the red door you want to open for the bar.
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Blog: Tonight I Will Stroll Through Hell With...
It has been awhile since I’ve been to a metal gig. The last time was at the Substation in the late 90s. While moshing with two other people was fun, this one will be on another level altogether. I trust that I can live up to the expectations of both Lamb of God and Judas Priest playing later tonight. I should wear black. That’s like the ethically correct colour to wear for such...
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News: Ming's Bassic Grows Strong; Zouk Launching...
Image: Afiq Omar
When Zouk launched Bassic in early January, I was fuck-yeah-ing all night long. Helmed by resident DJ Ming and given added weight with Jeremy Boon, the night features all sorts of bass from dubstep to drum & bass. And because it’s neither on the commercial end nor Skrillex side of things, the opening night (which featured Kiat) saw a healthy turnout. The second...
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News: Will Butter Factory's Ace of Spades Draw A...
AOS - The Official Launch Party Red Dot Museum l $20/25 includes two drinks Feb 25, 9pm
Winner of the Singapore Experience Awards 2011 for “Best Nightspot Experience”, The Butter Factory will be leaving their One Fullerton compound for a one-night stay at Red Dot Museum. Launching their new DJ outfit Ace of Spades (AOS) out of their humble establishment, will the gamble pay off?
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Mix: Volmax's VI
Image: Jim Lundgren
Tracklist:
1) Kate McGill “Replaced (Statix Remix)” 2) Fracture Design “A Winter’s Tale” 3) Synthetic Epiphany “Open Your Eyes” 4) Synthetic Epiphany “A New Path To The Waterfall” 5) Nadia Ali “Rapture (Dexcell Remix)” 6) Rob Sparx “Serenade” 7) Paul Haslinger “Eternity And A Day...
“Dear beloved readers,
If you can read this, that’s great, because Kiss...”
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Coverage: Laneway Singapore, 8,000 Punters (and...
Image: Aloysius Lim
I was doused in beer; slipped on a plastic picnic mat; tripped countlessly over those who sat; got into a scuffle with a queue-cutter; helped a Scottish guy carrying a Scotland flag to look for an English guy carrying an England flag –for kicks; and had what looked like a stoned-out hipster reciting verses of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” to me –I gave him a beer and a cigarette...
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Review: J.Edgar
[inSing] Relentless in his pursuit for lawfulness and abhorred for his hardliner ways, America’s first and longest serving Director of the FBI, John Edgar Hoover’s battles for justice in the mean streets of the early 20s and struggles with his own dark alleyways is dramatized in this biopic directed by Clint Eastwood.
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Blog: What Being 30 Feels Like
Like fuck, really. It’s not the number that matters, it’s the period when my value and worth to the world and maybe the entire goddamn universe is called to question that irks my living daylights. The thing is, no one asked, but it’s that time of my life when I sit between the end of my youth and the start of my hospice residency. The million-dollar question is revealed. It’s all or nothing. Pat...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Feb 13-19)
Check out February full-listing on Kiss My Culture’s The Monthlies.
Will And The People Timbre @ The Substation l Free Feb 15, 8pm
The British band’s laid-back charm can be found in their definitive sound through a blend of reggae, ska, rock and even house music. With Will Rendle’s effortless vocal prowess -maturing with the release of their new album Morning Sun- coupled by the band’s knack...
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Mix: Volmax's V
Image: Melt / Portrait Of An Iceberg by Simon Harsent
Tracklist:
1) Zero 7 “Destiny (Fresh Direct Remix)” 2) Seba “Painted Skies (SLOF MAN Remix)” 3) Magnetic Man “Flying Into Tokyo (Azedia Remix)” 4) Quickie Mart “Dutch Flower” 5) Bay & Cykl “Altitude” 6) Ben Benecke “These Feelings” 7) Fenech Soler...
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The Singleton Guide to Valentine’s Day
[inSing] Alone, depressed and had enough of your emotional relationship with things like video games and ice-cream? It’s no fun being single unless you’re distilled malt. Coupled with Singapore’s current all-time low fertility rate at 8.5 (that’s birth per 1,000 citizens mind you), there’s a demand for you to go out there and make some babies. But before you start googling for awesome kid...
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Interview: Lamb of God
[Time Out Singapore] Metal madness descends on Fort Canning this month as leather-metal pioneers Judas Priest arrive for their farewell ‘Epitaph’ world tour (‘This is the end of the long major world tours,’ says the band, now in their fourth decade. ‘We never said it was the end of Judas Priest!’), with long-standing thrash-metal scene leaders Lamb of God in tow for the Singapore appearance. Zul...
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5 Sexy Bars For First Dates
[inSing] It’s that time of the year again when you gleefully wait to get stabbed by cupid’s arrow. We however, prefer not to let you bleed on mythical ideologies and instead ask that you take matters into your own hands. The proverbial first dates, famed for being the stepping stone to a fruitful and healthy relationship, or provide you a reason why you should be in a relationship with a fruit...
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Blog: One Doesn't Just Gingerly Do Anything
With nothing interesting to do than perhaps to sharpen all my pencils, I watched the action-bromancing-comedy Due Date last evening when something caught my attention. In one of the scenes, Robert Downey Jr.’s character, Peter Highman was emotionally retelling the story of the day when his dad left home and never to be seen again to Ethan Tremblay/Chase played by Zach Gali-whatever.
...
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Six Ways To Become A Club Hotshot
[Juice magazine] Your favourite jaunt is where you can be yourself, have a drink and do your thang, but such an environment also produce a special breed of nuisance. In the wake of their need to be seen and heard, these merry gang of hanger-ons, free-loaders and tail-taggers, or for the lack of a better term -a club hotshot, exists scrupulously beyond the velvet ropes. In respect to this...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Feb 6-12)
Check out February full-listing on Kiss My Culture’s The Monthlies.
Kasabian with special guests The Vaccines Fort Canning Park l $98-110 from Sistic Feb 8, 8pm
The Brit rockers have matured since their electronic infused eponymous debut album in 2003 to their current state of rocking chair softness. Rocking nonetheless, they will be joined with third placed 2011 BBC Sound Of… band, The...
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Mix: Volmax's IV
Image: Jenny Harmsen
It would have been right to set you on fire. Whatever that’s left of you. To extinguish your liquid lies, your hardened cries. The artificial true colours stains your tongue. How much pain can you take, before you give? How many times do you need to die, before you live? To love, again.
Tracklist:
1) Jess Mills “Vultures (Photek Remix)” 2) Beethoven...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Jan 29-Feb 5)
Jaguar Skills Zirca l $16-30 includes two drinks Feb 3, 10pm
Guised as a ninja, the British mash-up sensation made his mark by slicing and dicing through BBC Radio 1 and other radio stations with his eclectic mixtapes.
Home Club & The RSC Present Identite feat. Clowns Home Club l $12 includes one drink Feb 3, 10pm
Melbourne’s punk quartet Clowns headline this monthly gig with the...
January 2012
24 posts
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Eastern aphrodisiacs for Valentine's Day
[Time Out Singapore] Your sexual prowess comes from what you drink. Zul Andra researches several outlandish Asian preparations that could help men rise to the occasion on V-Day.
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Interview: SBTRKT
Like unassuming drops from a drizzle, Aaron Jerome’s SBTRKT tidal wave rise in 2011 ensued from his seminal singles and remixes leading to an eponymous album that has been highly praised by artists and the media alike. There’s no other way to put a specific genre tag on his tracks other than knowing that it is a SBTRKT piece. Emotive, minimal and marrying pop sensibilities with distinctively...
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Interview: Low Kay Hwa
[Time Out Singapore] The 26-year-old Singaporean novelist Low Kay Hwa had a rocky start in the publishing world. First he was duped into paying over $6,000 to get his launch book Destiny’s Cries published, after which only five out of 1,000 copies were sold. Then he received criticism for what detractors saw as over-simplified writing and cheesy plots. Now, with ten books published, 33,000...
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5 wine bars worth checking out
[inSing] The local wine drinking culture is going mainstream with retailers and establishments opening their doors wider to both novice drinks as well as wine connoisseurs. Gone are the days when only a selected few with deep pockets could afford quality premium wines. With more vineyards from the New and Old World wineries, top-tiered wines are becoming more affordable than ever before. We...
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Review: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
[inSing] “Who’s up for an adventure?” asked a beaming Alexander Anderson (played by Michael Caine who can still run at his age). That question heard in trailers - and asked about three more times throughout the film - set the premise to what is to be an action-packed journey through an island where the only mythical thing about it is that its ecological system is flipped—small animals are...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Jan 23-29)
Dash Berlin Zouk l $40 includes two drinks Jan 23, 10pm
The Dutch DJ-producer will be dealing trance-heads his emotive and driving selections once again at Zouk.
Home Club Presents +65: The Vortex Returns Home Club l $15 includes a drink Jan 23, 10pm
Pioneering local drum & bass DJ Vortex helms the decks at this premier bass-heavy night together with Ajay, Zul from Subvert HQ and Nez.
...
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Mix: Volmax's III
Image: ST. KRYPTONIA by Hillary White
Indie super-band The Dead Weather opens for the hip-hop and R&B half of the eclectic Volmax III -following in the same vein as the last two mixes: never pigeon-holed. With current urban lyrical and production purveyors Shabazz Palaces, SBTRKT and Das Racist helming the front, the lesser-known Khat who has been compared to The Weeknd are both...
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The Monthlies: February
Kiss My Culture presents The Monthlies, an exclusive round-up of international and local acts to look out for through the month. Which acts will you be catching for February and why? Share your opinions in the comment box below. Also, keep up-to-date with top event picks every week on KMC’s Top 10 Things to do This Week. Have a Fab-Feb!
Disclaimer: All dates and confirmed artists are correct as...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Jan 16-22)
Suzanne Vega Esplanade Recital Studio l $128/148 from Sistic Jan 18, 7.30pm
The American singer-songwriter’s 1987 track “Tom’s Diner” is one of those tracks that has been remixed, covered and remade in just about every genre. British producers DNA started the ball rolling with their dance mix that opened the flood gates for Public Enemy, Nikki D and even REM to craft their own renditions....
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Mix: Volmax's II
Image: The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis by Jacques-Louis David (c. 1818)
Here’s Volmax II which I wanted to release in February but grew too impatient. First on the mix is EMIKA -one of the most underrated artist if I ever heard one. The UK born-Berlin based singer/DJ/producer of Czech heritage is one of Ninja Tune’s most recent signing. A storyteller first, her distinctive...
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Review: I Spit On Your Grave
[inSing] Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler - usually semi or fully naked) needs to get away from the bustling city life to write her novel and rents a riverside cabin. Unknown to her, the local hillbillies are plotting to shake her up for unintentionally humiliating one of them –Johnny (Jeff Branson), a gas station attendant. What was supposed to be a lesson taught ended up going too far with...
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Mix: Volmax's I
Image: Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi (c. 1612)
This was supposed to be my 19th mix, but the style and genres here have strayed so far away from my previous trance, proggy and techno mixes that I decided to start all over again with Volmax I.
I’ve been listening to some of these tracks on loop, so I decided to put it all together. Funnily, UNKLE, Jamie Woon, The xx...
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Top 10 Things to do This Week (Jan 9-15)
Skream & Benga Zirca l $20/32 includes two drinks Jan 13, 10pm
At a time when dubstep wasn’t Skrillex and a oh-Steve-Aoki’s-in-it-too, its stamp on the music industry was lesser-known in the late 90s under the footprint of UK bass. Skream and Benga were at the heart of that sound when it came about, going from dark to melodic and funk to jazzy. With both forming part of the trio Magnetic...
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Singapore Nightlife Year In Review, 2011
[inSing] The parties didn’t stop all the way to the last breath of 2011 –a year which saw some of the biggest international artists dropping by our shores, a wave of freshly appointed club residents, and a thriving bar scene with new establishments appearing faster than taxis before midnight. We take a look at the highlights of the year gone by in this Singapore nightlife special.
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I Found a New Word: Procrasturbation
Almost similar to its parents - procrastination and masturbation - procrasturbation is a child of insignificance. Inheriting the y (pronounced as “why”) and x (pronounced as “xxx”) chromosomes from procrastination and masturbation respectively, procrasturbation is a hybrid of the worst found in its parents’ character traits.
Contrary to popular and ignorant beliefs,...
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What I Learned About Reality From Nachos
Today I had a very challenging day. I caught a film preview and headed to this newly opened bar -each of which I am to review. It was really challenging. Life threateningly challenging. But I made it through: cue confetti.
There I was in the bus, heading home and thinking about everything and nothing at the same time when I caught a print ad about some brand of tortilla chips. The father and son...
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swaku asked: yo zul / would you be down to try on some of our new samples.. we asking buddies to fit as we'd rather shoot a friend / someone we know .. if you're free tomorrow & wednesday come by the office and try on some of the AW12 stuff.. let daryl know - i cldnt find u on facebook... this is chris btw
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I Killed My Online-Self and Have Been Living in...
“Where are you?” a friend asked rather worryingly over the phone. “I am home, why?” I replied and promised myself to answer with another question if he was going to ask me another question. “Are you alright?” He was anticipating a sort of a doomsday answer, so I gave him a, “Maybe?”
This is my intentionally annoying way of answering ambiguously;...