Written by lainie at 02:23 AM on June 5, 2006 in Music.

The 2nd day of CIJ's World Press Freedom day. I got asked if I was with CIJ / random NGOs a few times -_-". Possibly cause I was there both days....I'm a ho for free entertainment?

[ Update: Music! CIJ World Press Freedom Day gig (day 1) ]

I met fellow blogger Gecko there (hi!), he said he was there cause of the flyer on my blog. Wow, whaddya know, pimping events here actually *does* work. Saw him later at Troubagangers too (hope you and friends had good time - glad you found the place, I gave you pretty shite directions)...and a few other blog readers (hi, hi, hi, hi!).


Rafil and CK were standing near the stage, so I hung out with them for a lil while.


Broken Scar were playing. Bassist is Alda, from Cosmic Funk Express (damn cool band). Drummer is Manshaan from Dragon Red (rap rock, not my thing). Considering the crowd, it's a good thing they didn't do a slow version of their songs.


Y2K went up next, with their masks. Hah, pandering to the camera. He was tired, and kept saying he needed to "Sexercise" more. Then yelled at the crowd for not knowing Ben's Bitches. Dammit, I'd forgotten about that song. A healthy reminder that if your "friend" gets you high, drives you to a recording studio, and sticks a mic in front of your face, you should be very, veeeeeeeeeery cautious. And quiet.


He kept saying he couldn't see anything....I mean....Enjoyed their set, but I generally do like punk music.


Revenge. This dude showed up in uniform...Ben had wanted to show up in Baju Melayu but didn't.


They were the only band to have a costume change middle of their set. You can't see his belt, cause of his stomach, but it's an AC / DC belt . Someone told me they play Rock Kapak, it just sounded old school to me so I'm not sure what he meant.


The only reason I'm including this photo is because it looks so salah. He was actually just sticking the mic in front of the guitar.

After that was a half hour break. CJ and I went off for lunch at the foodcourt, but Sonia told us there was an "anti black metal" and "anti punk" display downstairs (apparently, music can be a big part of social ills....). We were delighted, wanted to know if there were anti-punk petitions there we could sign, with "Punk Rockers" next to our names, under our occupation (it would have been a lie, but fuckit).


Anti Black-Metal. Alllllll the coffin make-up faces were blurred out, so CJ and I don't get the point of them showing the pictures in the first place, since they wanted to illustrate what coffin make-up looks like....by yes, obscuring it.

Then again, it seems almost unfair to expect them to make sense, these poor people are campaigning against music, for god's sake. Oh wait. Oh irony.


It's so cute how they had a "History of Punk" printed out, and they bolded their own spelling mistake - Sid Dicious. Next to it were warnings against using drugs, driving dangerously, and violence against women.

Which confuses me, because I'd love to dislike and snub them entirely. Choosy bigots are tricky to deal with.


Ben's Bitches was up next. CK and I had a disagreement / talk because I still think it's ridiculous that the bands have to censor themselves of curse words and all that. But it's either that, or risk getting the permit for the event torn up.

I mean, have you seen Ben's Bitches perform? Foul-mouthed buggers, the lot of them.


Short video of Ben yelling because of technical problem. Hah. Bet he wanted to curse. See CK go crazy kicking / spinning around doing who knows what.


I stole his cap later on. It was weird when Irene said it was such a grindcore cap. I said nawww, of course it's just a fashion statement. CK said it's a fashion statement very popular in China. We are so irrelevant. The guys in the audience loved the song "Aku Suka Jolok", which is technically about poking fruits in trees, and actually about having sex. Obviously.


The crowd really liked Ben's Bitches man........After the break, the audience dispersed, and normally it's a slow build up, but in this case Ben and co were so rowdy it filled up bloody fast. I wanted to know why the hell they weren't playing "Trouble with CK", it's a song made of cuss words. They said they couldn't, or the organisers would get into trouble.

.....freedom of speech, yeay.

I told them to get their punk rock balls together and do it anyway. I suppose if they'd listened to me the gig would have ended at their set. When Nessa arrived, the first thing she asked me was

Nessa: Are they playing Trouble with CK?
Lainie: Nope. Can't. .
Nessa: WHY?
Lainie: Censored.
Nessa: What? That sucks.
Lainie: Mmhmm.
Nessa: Are they playing Girl From Ipoh?
Lainie: Don't think so.
Nessa: Why?

That's just her ego talking though (it's a song about her, to be specific, it's bout Ben getting lucky with her, which never happened). BB were a bit......hmm. I've seen them rock out way more, but they still had more antics than a lot of other bands. They also covered 360's "Satan Wants A Cigarette". I love the confused looks the audience gets cause no one can hear what they're singing most of the time. Rafil, take the goddamn song back, I can't even figure out what he's singing on the CD.

Siew Eng, writing about the event for Kakiseni, asked CK where Ben's Bitches got their name from. CK came up with this whoooooole pile of shite about how they chose a word that would encounter problems with censorship to make a statement. Kevin Brokenscar and I took to coughing "coughbullshitcough" while he talked.

Kevin should know, his old band is John's Mistress, Ben's story of how his band's name came about was "John has his mistresses, you all be my bitches". But seriously, Ben also said "Ben's Bitches", because then he can't sell out and do radio stuff, not with the radio-unfriendly name.

The SBs actually liked Ben's Bitches. Hah. One of them did, happy looking chap, clapping and stuff. There was another grumpier looking one though - not sure what he thought. Ben's Bitches played a new song - "This is Not A Black Metal Song". Obviously, many of the bands still remember the Paul's Place time.

Paul's Place is coming back, by the way. Lovies. Even with the crappy sound system.

Email quote: "Watching the Special Branch grooving to Ben's Bitches at CM was the strangest thing I'd seen in a while."
Anyhow, Ben's Bitches was recently interviewed at Think.com, and Joe Kidd mentioned their set too.

Rafil's band, 360 Degree Head Rotation went on next. They always take the piss. Their set had the most technical problems. Rafil actually had to leave the stage halfway, and let the band hold the fort.


Which they did really well. Whooo, go Jack! The crowd totally cheered them of after. Yes this entire post is irrelevant. Fuck you.



Watch this video - Hilarious. Mostly in Malay - listen to the heckling. Well, actually, start the video and listen, but don't watch - I have fricking shaky hands.

This is a video of the "Anugerah Kambing Hitam" (Black Goat Awards), which is, I believe, an evolution of this. This is thanks to the media fucks that happened over the whole "black metal" issue (enough to fill up this blog). Rafil's a hilarious arse (who sends me the most "what the fuck of the month" emails that combine talk about both temporal displacement sickness and enemas - a dubious, but nevertheless, somewhat impressive achievement).

Cerita Paling Tak Masuk Akal.
Cerita Paling Kurang Tepat.
Anugerah Kambing Hairan.
Yes the laughing voice / coughing is me. Sigh. It's okay, my friends hate how my laugh sounds on video too.
I pretty much ran out of space on the camera's memory card after this video.

Disarseter Records, houses Ben's Bitches, 360, and Maharajah Commission.


2 Foot Candle. Very YOUNG looking group. Just guessing, but probably influenced by Icelandic / Swedish / (that kinda) Metal. My Metal cred is way low, I'm not into that genre so much, but could tell they were good at what they did, technically - also, first time watching them, but their band name gets around. I kept thinking Colin Poh would appreciate them more.


Negation. Bad photo, crazy crowd. Organiser was smart - put all the bands that will...uh. Not so much cause trouble, but get the crowd rowdy, at the end of the sets. Body surfing happened again. Their set made me feel one thing - I want to MOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! But proper mosh.

Slight purity complex. "We are better than our oppressors" kinda band. Said stuff like "We are clean, we don't take drugs or drink alcohol. And at least, we don't take bribes". Hmm. I must say, I have my reservations about this...................I'm not sure why. The crowd seemed to really love them though. Cheered their politics on.

I think I'm just a bit overloaded on what is "right" and "wrong" and which is "better".

More videos tomorrow. Or soon. Maybe Actorlympics. And Troubagangers. Crap. I normally blog reeeeeeeally fast, but there are more stuff happening recently than I can keep up with in my days. How come. Hmm.

=====

After that, went for a coffee with Jack, Irene and CK.

CK asked me if I knew who NOFX are. Nawwww, who? Never heard of them, really really. CK said Ben's voice sounds like Fat Mike's, which was just so wrong. -_____-". NOFX has been singing about Bush, I think, ever since that arse got elected. They reaaaally hate him, and they're so political, so there are heaps of anti-Bush songs on the internet thanks to them (Idiot son of an asshole, idiot son of an asshoooole - guess who this is about).

We talked about making porn, reality tv competition for porn stars (available for download over the internet, I'm sure), midget porn...home tapes....... Specifically, I'm still offering my services in conducting casting.

Violence against women? Never heard those words before. Ever. Hentaiiiiiii!!

Sigh. I'm gonna get into trouble with a friend over those words, I can sense it. Babe, cmonnnn. Let me escape once.

=====

Wasted Talent is the crew guy taking care of almost everything, including the technical problems and "security" onstage.

I'm sneezing. I've been sneezing ever since this post went up. Which fucker cursing me? Wonder if it's the same person who's been uh.....googling....me excessively. You guys do realise I have referrals, right?

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