The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
| Posted: 30 Dec 2011 01:18 AM PST As the band's career winds down, Scorpions will make sure fans get what they want, and at this point in time, that's new album Comeblack. IT was news that rocked the world when it first came out early this year. The band seemed to be going strong, but common sense suggested that German rock band Scorpions would eventually have to call it a day – they're no spring chickens, you know. With the founding members in their 60s, maintaining quality control in an energetic, live setting logically became a point of contention. So in January, the quintet announced it was going to retire after its final album (which turned out to be one of its best in a long time), Sting In The Tail, and the subsequent world tour. With the outpouring enthusiasm and affection during the tour, the corporate wheels at Sony Music began turning in reaction to the good vibes. Thus Comeblack came into the picture, vaunting a collection of re-recorded Scorpions gems and cover tunes from disparate sources like T-Rex, The Beatles, The Kinks and Rolling Stones, among others. And strangely, this doesn't even seem like an endeavour that's scraping the bottom of the barrel, either. Singer Klaus Meine was certainly in the mood to share his thoughts on all that's been going right in the Scorpions world recently during a phone interview from his native Germany, where he and guitarist Rudolf Schenker recently attended the opening of the Hard Rock Cafe in Hamburg. What did they do there? Like any good rockers, smash guitars, but of course. "This final tour has made us realise that things are winding down to a close, and has made everything extra special and that much more emotional for us. And we know we want to walk into the sunset with class and style. We've played 125 shows in 25 countries and the reception has been fantastic. We want to remain in the memories of our fans as a great live band," Meine enthused, revealing that last year's Sting In The Tail is an album that will allow the band to sign off on a high, given the strong DNA which ties it in with classics like Lovedrive (1979), Blackout (1982) and Love At First Sting (1984). Comeblack is purely a project by Scorpions' coffers, Sony Music, but the band relished the chance to reach out to a new audience as well. "When the tour turned out great, Sony wanted to support it with a few projects. It's not completely right to call this a new album. The thinking behind it is that, we wanted to hear what some of those old songs would sound like through newer recording technology – we wanted to give them an updated sound," Meine confessed. And when he describes them as classics, he means that with a "k" – contained in the album are all-time favourites like Rock You Like A Hurricane, Still Loving You, Wind Of Change, Blackout and other gems like The Zoo, No One Like You and Rhythm Of Love. Like Meine professed, they sound heftier and his once-lilting voice is now more of a rasp. Re-recording them wasn't a drudgerous chore, though. Far from it. And the approach was never about recreating the original vibe of the songs. "We play these songs all the time ... they're so close to our hearts. We just wanted great and strong performances. Of course, even the keys of the songs have been brought down. Come on, I'm not Superman, you know," Meine displayed his humility about his vocal prowess no longer being what it was. The band put all its experience and feeling into the songs to give it a decidedly new feel, though, throwing in vocal harmonies, too. "The originals are fantastic the way they are, so we never set out to better them. We hope fans like the new treatment we've given to these old songs." If rock fans have a crystal clear image of the kind of band the Scorpions is, the quintet's choice of cover tunes for Comeblack reveals a band with surprisingly eclectic music taste. Among the songs covered are Tainted Love (originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965, but made popular by 1980s synth pop duo Soft Cell), Children Of The Revolution (T-Rex), Across The Universe (The Beatles), Tin Soldiers (Small Faces), All Day And All Of The Night (The Kinks) and Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones). "The songs we recorded were by artistes who inspired us when we were getting into music ... mostly 60s songs. We love and have a lot of respect for those artistes. I'm a big Beatles fan, so Across The Universe was something I wanted to do. Then Matthias (Jabs, lead guitarist) suggested a (Rolling) Stones song, but I said 'No way'. In the end, he finally convinced me. We love the rock bands from the 1960s and songs like You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night," he revealed. The strangest cover choice of the lot, though, has to be Tainted Love. "That was Rudolf's idea. He was sure he could arrange it to suit the Scorpions. I mean, it's a powerful song and we had a lot of fun recording it," he said, sounding pleased as punch. The song's Motown-flavoured arrangement of guitars and horns lent itself to a rock interpretation. "We want to take our fans from the rolling 60s through to the rocking 80s. This is like us singing a big thank you to them," he added. Scorpions once contained Schenker's younger brother, Michael, who went on to establish himself as one of the best rock guitarists of his generation with British band UFO and later his own, the Michael Schenker Group (MSG). Scorpions' classic line-up included bassist Francis Buccholz and drummer Herman Rarebell (the line-up responsible for the band's peak years in the 1980s), though these positions are filled up ably today by Pawel Maciwoda and James Kottak, respectively. Comeblack's title is clearly wordplay and Meine is accepting of this observation. "It's a pun. The title is probably the most asked question regarding the album. I originally meant to call it Diamonds And Pearls but found out that Prince already has an album with that name." After furiously trying to figure out a title, Meine finally formulated Comeblack in his head. "I came up with it. It's original," said the singer, revealing that the band was coming up with 10 titles a day before settling for his suggestion. Comeblack is basically a "tour" album, a memento of the band's travels in support of its final album, Sting In The Tail. "The momentum for the farewell tour is picking up and we've sold out for months ahead. We'll continue to be on the road through 2012 ... this is what we do. It's great that we're having fun doing this, but it's still at the back of our minds that this is all coming to an end. Time flies when you're having fun," said the rocker, half cheekily. According to Meine, Comeblack won't be the final word on Scorpions just yet. As the farewell tour progresses, Sony Music will be releasing more of such projects. But until then, be prepared to weather the Scorpions storm as it rocks us all like a hurricane through the tour, which will take the band to its final curtain call in 2013. Comeblack is available from Sony Music. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Why is this ‘Kolaveri’ all the rage? Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:24 PM PST PETALING JAYA: Malaysians are so hooked to the addictive Tamil hit song Why this Kolaveri Di which has taken the cyber world by storm. The song, which has been viewed more than 29 million times on YouTube, was recently awarded a Gold Medal by the video sharing website for receiving a large number of hits within a short time. It has also gone viral on Facebook, with listeners of all ages, and even other races, sharing the video on the website. A group performing a flashmob of the song in Auckland has been uploaded on YouTube. "It is simple and cheeky," said writer Anuradha Raghu, 23, while businessman Phua Eu Jin, 23, admits the song was catchy although he didn't understand the lyrics. "I see it all over Facebook and just had to listen to it to see what it was all about," he said. The song which was produced as part of upcoming Tamil movie 3, stars actress Shruti Haassan and actor Dhanush, who also sang the song. The film is due for release next month on the eve of Ponggal – the harvest festival. The title of the song, which means "Why this murderous rage?" is a question posed by the film's hero towards his girlfriend who has dumped him. He laments the girl's decision to leave him and how she had moved on while he was miserable. Accountant Danisha Saravana Kumar, 26, said the song was extremely addictive. "The Tamil mixed with English lyrics sung with a drunken stupor gives the song that extra oomph!" she said while senior human resource executive Reuben Varughese Philip, 28, said the tune of the song had a very evident "feel good factor" about it. Besides the original video, a "Malaysian version" of the song is also gaining popularity on the video sharing website. Having received nearly 12,000 views on YouTube and 500 shares on Facebook, the video titled Why this Kolaveri Di, Malaysian version is sung by a Malay youth who adds his own twist to the song with lyrics in Bahasa Malaysia. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Posted: 29 Dec 2011 04:21 PM PST HAVING never been to Cambodia before, I had no idea what to expect from an MTV EXIT concert there. Of course, I knew about the concert headliners, American power pop band The Click Five and Korean girl group After School, but what was really whetting my appetite was the chance to check out some Khmer acts that are considered big enough, or cool enough, to also get on the bill on something that is as big as an MTV concert. So when I got to the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh on Dec 17, I had my mind set on catching every single song by every single act on the bill. The concert started around 6pm, with local hip hop crew Eklectic opening the show with some energetic B-boy moves and quite impressive beats and rhymes, the highlight of which was their last song, which cleverly sampled an infectious old Khmer tune that got everybody shouting along and dancing to the music. As it was an MTV EXIT concert, which aims to raise awareness on the dangers and evil of human trafficking and exploitation, performances alternated between short speeches from figures like the United States Ambassador to Asean, the Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Interior of Cambodia, right through to the Deputy Secretary-General of Asean Political-Security Committee, all giving empowering messages to the young people in attendance. The 40,000 strong crowd was always in good spirits throughout the night, as they cheered and clapped for everyone playing and giving speeches. Up next after Eklectic was Thmor Band, who played a sort of Khmer version of rock kapak (Malaysian slang for 80s hair metal, done Malaysian style), complete with the expected guitar heroics. The band ended its three-song set with a cover of Michael Jackson's Black Or White, which drew huge cheers from the crowd. Strangest, though, was the next band. Calling itself Cartoon Emo, the band opened its set with some pretty nifty metalcore moves, complete with a groovy breakdown for hardcore kids to dance the "two-step" to (alas, I didn't see any of that in the crowd that night), only to have the very next song be a complete 180° turnaround from the first one, with a lead guitar lick that strongly reminded me of the song Fiona by 4U2C. The rest of the song sounded like a mainstream pop-rock tune, not unlike the ones by Sofaz or Sixth Sense. The band's next song was a combination of both worlds, with metalcore screams and a Sofaz pop-rock chorus. And they look a wee bit like Tokio Hotel, too! Then came Khmer music of the sort that most of us would expect, with gorgeous songstress Sok Pisey belting out soothing ballads that sounded not unlike the Thai country ballads (or luk-thoong, as the Thais call it) that a lot of Malaysians are familiar with from the 1980s. The biggest local star of them all though, was Preab Sovath, who confidently swaggered onstage backed by Cartoon Emo (minus their singer), and proceeded to wow the crowd with two rock kapak mid-tempo ballads that would surely have been huge here as well ... if they were sung in Malay. But it was the next two songs in his four-song set that surprised me as he then comfortably went into K-Pop mode, backed by a group of impressive dancers, and showed off some truly fluid moves himself, too. He even rapped on the final song, making me wonder whether there's anything that this guy can't do. The Cambodian equivalent to Michael Jackson? I definitely think so. American power poppers The Click Five did its thing, returning to Cambodia after its last performance there in 2008, also for MTV EXIT. Opening with the first song from its debut album, Good Day, the band delivered a rockingly exuberant and energetic seven-song set that I wished could have gone on a bit longer. Playing hits like Just The Girl, Jenny and their collaboration with MTV EXIT, Don't Let Me Go, the quintet was probably the most exciting act of the night. Try telling that to the legions of fans of Korean girl group After School though, who went nuts at the mere mention of the group's name before they came onstage. An up and coming K-Pop group that's making quite a name for itself in Japan now, the group delivered a mesmerising five-song set that was filled with flawlessly-executed dance moves that were as sexy as they were highly impressive. Definite highlights were the fast-paced hit Bang and closing song Diva, which the crowd enthusiastically sang along to at every given opportunity. It was undoubtedly a hugely interesting and fun concert. And when you add the audience's infectious enthusiasm into the equation, and the worthy message that was being spread all night, it was definitely a night that will live long in my memory. And you can also put me down as a new fan of After School! – Aidil Rusli Related Story: |
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