TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ben Folds back to college as Strawberries take flight in China.
Is it Sunday already? Wow, time flies don't it? Anyway, it is once again time to nourish your noggin with oh so nutritious music news
Change Size
Is it Sunday already? Wow, time flies don't it? Anyway, it is once again time to nourish your noggin with oh so nutritious music news. Thanks again for the notes, you guys are kewl. We've got a lot going on this week, so let's hit it!
Reverb
International
Anyone who has followed Ben Folds' career from the early years knows that he ain't exactly conventional; his newest project will be no different. Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella! will be out April 28, according to Billboard magazine. The 16-track album is produced by Folds and features 14 different college a cappella groups singing Folds' songs like "Brick" and "Magic" along with two voice-only tracks sung by Folds himself. What's next for the piano man: A new collaboration LP with lyrics by novelist/rock critic/ music geek poster boy Nick Hornby. Yummers!
China, of all places, will host their largest independent music festival ever. The Strawberry Festival takes place May 1-3 at Tongzhou Canal Park in Beijing and will feature eccentric soundsmiths Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu. The poster has a jet-propelled strawberry on it, that's reason enough to be excited.
In a piece of totally "Woohooo!" inducing news, listener-supported freeform New Jersey radio station WFMU (http://wfmu.org) is launching a library of free, legal downloads called the Free Music Archive. Although getting this archive off the ground took a little bit longer than the WFMU folks hoped, the beta version of the Free Music Archive is up now, and it's quite droolworthy. The site works like this: WFMU, along with a group of fellow curators like the Seattle station KEXP, the California collective dublab, and the New York venue ISSUE Project Room, pick and choose high-quality material to upload. Given the tastes of everyone involved, there's an awful lot of cool stuff up there. Right now, the site already includes tracks from the likes of Deerhoof, the Sea and Cake, Dan Deacon, Daniel Johnston, and Vivian Girls, as well the entirety of Nine Inch Nails' The Slip. The FMA's archive is already into the thousands, and the curators are adding new music every day. They also plan to announce more curators soon, so this thing will only get bigger. The site also includes sites and bios for the bands whose music it posts, so it's not inconceivable that someone will hear something they like and then actually buy an album based on that. Alternately, downloaders can send direct donations, via PayPal, to artists whose music they like. Once you've found something you like, you can do pretty much whatever you like with it (except sell it). Everything on the site is cleared for use, so you can remix or podcast to your heart's content. If this site grows the way we imagine it will, it's about to become a hell of a resource. You can learn more about the Free Music Archive at http://freemusicarchive.org. This has got to be the coolest thing since cheese in a spray can!
National
I get really excited when I hear of local acts making some noise on foreign shores, especially when those acts are Underground Hum alumni. Last month's Main Stage subjects, folk-pop act Endah N Rhesa, are in Singapore from last Friday (April 17) to today (April 19) playing at Indie Asia 2009 at the Esplanade. Sharing the bill with them are fellow Indonesian folkies Bonita and Cozy Street Corner. Go to www.endahnrhesa.com for more details.
Another case of local kids make good is Bali's own pop-punk outfit Superman Is Dead. SID's about to embark on their first tour of the United States of America, baby! Their journey through Obama Land kicks off on June 13 in New York and culminates with them joining the Vans Warped Tour in California on June 26 up to July 9 in Cleveland, Ohio. Congrats boys!
Remember a while back I told you guys of the 2009 AVIMA Asian Indie Music Awards? Well on April 1, the winners of said awards were announced on a snazzy webcast. Quite a bunch of Indonesian artists and bands took home awards. Congrats to all our local acts that kicked ass at AVIMA! Here's the complete list of winners:
2009 Avima Winner list
Song Of The Year
Marabahaya (E.A.R version) - Pop Shuvit & Project EA.R (Thailand/Malaysia/Philippines/Singapore/Indonesia) *Thank You For Existing Becoz Your Music Makes Each Day Worth Waking Up To', (Most Innovative and Inventive Indie Act) Agrikulture (Indonesia) & Out Of Body Special (Philippines)
Best Rock Song
Marabahaya (E.A.R version) - Pop Shuvit & Project EA.R (Thailand/Malaysia/Philippines/Singapore/Indonesia) (Gold) Archipelago-MRI (Philippines) (Silver) Save our souls-Electrico (Singapore) (Bronze)
Best Rock Act(Group/duo)
1. Motherjane (India) - Gold
2. Pop Shuvit (Malaysia) - Silver
3. Ritmic-Traumatic (Indonesia) - Bronze
Best Rock Vocalist
1. Dia Hassan-Juliana down, (UAE) - Gold
2. Rithan - Deja Voodoo Spells (Malaysia) - Silver
3. Dave Tan - Electrico (Singapore) - Bronze
Best Pop/R&B Song
Naino sey - Sanjay Divecha (India)
Best Pop Act (solo or group)
Overload Romance (Indonesia)
Best Dance/Electronica Song
Funky Wah-Wah-Walking In The Moonlight (Thailand)
Best Dance Act(Group, duo)
Joujouka (Japan)
Best Dance Act (Solo)
CC Sound factory (Singapore)
Best Hip Hop Song
Poppin - Kraft & Jeevz (Malaysia)
Best Hip Hop Solo Act
Krishan (Sri Lanka)
Best Hip Hop Group
Thaitanium (Thailand) & Dice & K9 (Mobbstarr) (Philippines) (TIE)
Most Mind Blowing Music Video
Vivek Rajagopalan - Snake in the city (India)
Best Overall Female Vocalist
Armi Millare - Up dharma down (Philippines)
Genre Bending-Mindboggling-Out of this world Track!
Together again - Shaair and Func (India)
That about wraps it up for this week's Reverb. Stay tuned next week!
Meanwhile, do drop me a line at undergroundhum@yahoo.com and if you've got a band or know of any cool bands with gigs coming up, email me the full details and I'll be sure to include it in the next Reverb.
See y'all next week
