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Posted: 18 Oct 2011 05:24 AM PDT

MALAYSIAN singer-songwriter Zee Avi, now based in New York, will be back for a homecoming tour in conjunction with the release of her second album, 'Ghostbird.'

Zee will be performing at Kuala Lumpur (Nov 17), Penang (Nov 19) and Kuching, Sarawak (Nov 26). Opening for Zee is local rock band One Buck Short's drummer, performing as Narmi.

'Ghostbird' follows Zee's self-titled debut which was released on American folk singer-songwriter Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records two years ago. It achieved gold status here with 10,000 units sold, spawning the hits 'Bitterheart' and 'Kantoi.'

Her sophmore album 'Ghostbird' (meaning 'Burung Hantu') was released on August 23.

Zee said she was "itching" to go back on tour and show off her live skills since the album's release. Last March, Zee played her first big concert in Kuala Lumpur to a sold-out crowd at KL Live.

On Nov 17, she returns to the same venue to thrill her Klang Valley fans. She plays Damai Central in Kuching on Nov 26 while her Penang venue on Nov 19 will be announced soon.

Her new album has already sold 3,000 units here. It features 11 songs, including 'Stay In The Clouds', 'Siboh Kitak Nangis' (the first song in the Miri-born singer's Sarawakian dialect) and the first single 'Swell Window.'

Zee said 'Swell Window' was the opening track of her album as it was as it was the song that inspired the album and consequent tour.

"It's a song about seizing the moment," she said, adding "and for me, a new direction and a new voice came and stayed."

Tickets for Zee's shows next month are available through www.airasiaredtix.com and selected Rock Corner and Victoria Music outlets at RM98 and RM158 per ticket. Find out more at www.livescape.asia.

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Hip Hop stars Kanye West, Jay-Z sued

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 06:45 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters): Kanye West and Jay-Z have hit a bum note with one songwriter who claims they lifted his material without permission.

The two hip hop moguls are being sued by musician Syl Johnson, who claims in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois Friday alleging that West and Jay-Z sampled his 1967 song ''Different Strokes'' for a tune on their recent collaboration ''Watch the Throne.''

According to Johnson's suit, the pair had first solicited permission to sample ''Different Strokes'' on the song ''The Joy'' for West's album ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,'' but were shot down, and the song was left off the album. The tune ended up on ''Watch the Throne,'' which was released in August.

According to the suit, the defendants claim they received permission to sample the song from an entity called the Numero Uno Group, which has never had any authorization to license the tune.

''Different Strokes'' has been sampled by a number of artists, including Michael Jackson, Kid Rock and Will Smith, the lawsuit states.

Johnson, who also names Island Def Jam, Universal Music Group and Roc-a-Fella Records in the suit, is seeking actual and punitive damages to be determined at a jury trial.

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Chris Isaak pays homage to Elvis on latest album

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 06:44 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters): Not too many months ago, a fairly mediocre Buddy Holly tribute album came out, and the only celebrity cover singer who sounded like he had any real affinity for the source material was Chris Isaak.

You might have found yourself wishing the all-star cast idea had been chucked so Isaak could just cut the songs all by his lonesome.

That wish comes to a kind of fruition on Isaak's new album, ''Beyond the Sun,'' though Holly doesn't figure into this oldies set.

Instead, the pop-rockabilly revivalist is paying highly effective homage to the short-lived, eternally influential Sun Records roster of the mid- and late '50s, particularly Elvis, Johnny, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins. He's a one-man Million Dollar Quartet.

It comes close to feeling like a flat-out Presley tribute album, since there's no attempt to put Perkins on par with the Pelvis. Elvis songs comprise half of the 14 songs on the standard edition, as well as five out of the 11 bonus tracks on the two-CD deluxe version.

His fixation on the most famous figure in Sun's solar system isn't just a late-blooming commercial consideration: For a quarter-century, both the throb in Isaak's voice and the upturn in his greased bangs have paid inherent and ongoing tribute to the pre-Colonel-Parker King.

By the strictest critical standards, ''Beyond the Sun'' ought to have more reinterpretation going on to be worth a nod. At times, the covers are so note-for-note perfect that the album resembles Todd Rundgren's 1970s album ''Faithful,'' an odd experiment in trying to replicate a batch of rock classics with ridiculous exactness.

But it'd be churlish to complain about his slavishness to the original Sun sound when Isaak was so to the rockabilly manor born.

And, against all odds, he's self-produced a set of sides that somehow sound like they were cut in 1956 without sacrificing a bit of the increased vibrancy, dynamic range, and loudness you expect out of contemporary recordings. Sam Phillips would be proud, and so will your high-end earbuds.

The more obscure the choices are, the better. That's one reason to spend a few extra bucks and pick up the two-CD version, since the bonus disc delves further into numbers unfamiliar to all but the most diehard oldies hounds.

The primary CD has a few too many tracks chosen to lure the average consumer, and Isaak really doesn't bring that much to exhausted standards like ''Cant Help Falling in Love,'' ''Great Balls of Fire,'' or ''Ring of Fire'' - though it is a kick to wait and see whether such a high-voiced singer can hit the very lowest notes that arrive late in Cash's ''Walk the Line.'' (He does.)

But even the first disc includes its share of little-known material, like ''Miss Pearl,'' a fast-driving rave-up from Sun artist Jimmy Wages, who was definitely not part of any Million Dollar Quintet.

That one's so obscure, Wages' version didn't come out till decades after he recorded it, and Isaak will delight cultists by making it a cornerstone here.

On top of covering Roy Orbison and Howlin' Wolf, Isaak also throws two originals into the ring. One, ''Live It Up,'' is a rockabilly guitar workout, while the other, ''Lovely Loretta,'' exists primarily to pay homage to Jerry Lee Lewis' barrelhouse piano style, sequenced right on the heels on Lewis' classic ''Crazy Arms.''

But the main draw is Elvis' lesser revived early B-sides, which it's a wonder that a Sun worshipper like Isaak didn't take a stab at 20 or 25 years ago. There's an argument to be made that rock & roll in its purest form peaked just about as quickly as it (arguably) started, with Presley's first Memphis sessions.

But as much as you might hope these recordings send people back to those originals, the fierce intelligence and musical agility behind ''Beyond the Sun'' doesn't give folks much reason to abandon Isaak's own versions prematurely.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 18 Oktober 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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