Attitude.

Few things of late have reminded me of the good old times. Yes the erm “failed attempts at Veganism” phase of my life where ripped jeans, cds and skateboards were rice.

On the way home from Ellie’s last night Joey and I talked about the AIM Awards that he was at earlier on. Two of the music videos his company HueVisualab directed/designed (er??), Ahli Fiqir’s “Angguk-angguk Geleng-geleng” and that Love Me Butch’s song which I don’t know the name of were nominated for Best Video.

To be honest, I was pretty damn surprised to find out that neither won the title.

Anyway, Joey was telling me about how much he liked the concept of Angguk-angguk gelang-gelang when they first proposed their idea to him, that Malaysians are relentlessly (although they would never admit it) bowing to the West. I’m not saying I’m not one of them, but I think it’s a little different that I romanticize the America thirty/forty years ago and detest the current.

Then it came to reading Kimbly’s post about gigs nowadays, which are lacking in fervor and raw gusto. Then I was transferred back to my high school era where underground gigs were the shit. I mean, six years ago, bands played in public halls where the popos had to be paid off because there was gonna be profanities spit at the crowd and out of control moshpits where Eugene had lost multiple pairs of glasses, had his nose bleeding into his shirt, and Brandon with a busted lip or knee or whatever.

Tiny 7 was shooed offstage at the Sunway Amphitheater for having used profane lyrics. I can remember it quite vividly, it went like this:

“People people people, where’s the love in this world? We should stop the hatin’ and bring on the lovin’”

The crowd cheers.

“Life’s too short to waste on anger and pain so why don’t some girl suck my cock!” And Brandon kicked in this crazy bass solo and I laughed and laughed and almost fell into the backdrop when I realized the crowd was buzzing with revulsion.

All except for a small horde of Malay guys with fauxhawks at the bottom left who yelled “Long live punk rock!!” at us thanks to the 16 beats on the drums and that fast three chord style :P

Then the Chairlady of the thingy ran toward the stage and motioned for us to stop but Eugene kept on singing. Next thing we know, someone had pulled the plug and the crowd was gasping and staring in horror. And then we were being escorted out of the premises by the security, they grabbed the guys by the upper arms and led us out in front of the crowd. When we passed that group of guys, they slapped hands with us and cried “Punk’s not dead!”

That's what I call a defining moment in life.

When asked if Eugene would do it any differently he would say “Fuck no! I’d do it all over again.”

Damn it. I miss those boys. They use to wear their shirts inside out. The only punk band in the country and fuck they were good. JonIanGeneBran, you shaped a whole lot of me that I still am today even though you stuffed me into a shopping cart and hauled it all over Atria’s parking lot while I was throwing up. You know, genuine cool people are people who don’t know that they are cool and don’t want to be cool. Punk’s been pissed on by Blink 182 who sold out after Dude Ranch, same goes for fuckin’ Green Day and Simple Plan/Good Charlotte who is just pop for goodness’ sake. Don’t even get me started on Miss Avril, I’d take a leak in her mouth if I ever met her. It's fine if you have bland or bad music, just don't fucking claim to be something you're not. That's blesphemy. That's ajaran sesat. That's as bad as tricking a Jew into eating pork during the biblical times. Because if you know what punk is really about, you wouldn't claim to be anything!

Now Tempered Mental is one local band where when I first heard them back in 2002, they were awesome and they still are today. Melina could sing Silverchair songs better than Daniel Johns can, yes how very audacious of me. But it’s true. I have been listening to them faithfully the past four years and had even bought their cds and gave it away for free because I thought they were so good. It’s not even the type of music I like! But its excellent nonetheless and I had to acknowledge that. I doubt they would ever sell out. We got drunk and play charades at Ramon/Tasha's! That sort of credentials will take you a longggg way.

Apart from Tempered Mental I think the local music scene is dire and pretentious, from what little I know I must admit . It seems to be all about getting onto 8tv or Mtv (*spits) and less about music convulsing in your spine and bawling out something you believe in so much, you’d get kicked in the face for it. PS 1-18 used to get laughed at and picked on by the “cool” kids who wears button shirts and drinks champagne/wine in clubs. They called them "losers". I'll have you know that the same boys whose asses you kicked are: a 4.0GPA genius, the other the top of his course and another who is travelling the world with his guitar. They have no idea how much my boys loved to get beaten up, the more you beat them the more unquestionable it is that they are making a fucking difference. Or maybe, this is just the punkhead way. *slaps own forehead*

I was gonna say, get a clue dipshits. But no, some people will float through life the way they see fit and I shouldn't judge (but I sure can fire my thoughts for free). After all, like I always say, you can only live your own experience. And that's probably why I am the way I am, which I don't even know what that is but it is what I am.