Jimmy Eat World @ Balai Kartini, Jakarta (03/04/2011)

My first introduction to Jimmy Eat World was that massive top-40 hit, "The Middle" which apparently reached #5 on the Billboard Top 100 at some point. The video of the song was being played at least 5 times a day on MTV when i was 15-16 that it's hard to miss it. It's the one where people having pool party in their underwear, just in case your memory failed you.

Looking back at it, It's funny to think that Jimmy Eat World who wrote countless numbers of singles, have won awards from the music industry and have toured with every single "big" rock act out there (Foo Fighters, Green Day, etc etc, you get the picture) is the same band who put out splits with Christie Front Drive, Jejune and Mineral and probably did countless basement shows back in the day.

Jimmy Eat World started by putting out a slew of demos and EPs dated back to 1993 and 1994. Their sound is still very much straight forward punk-rock at this point, albeit leaning towards more the melodic side of the spectrum. The production is rough and the music isn't anywhere as interesting as their later stuff, but the catchiness and the melodies are there. Soon after, they got picked up by Capitol Records where they put out their first major label offering Static Prevails in 1996.

Static Prevails is considered to be the start of good things for Jimmy Eat World. Along with all advantages that comes with being on major label, the band's songwriting has improved ten folds at this point. The band's style of mid tempo punk-rock with huge anthemic choruses and soft-loud dynamics is starting to take shape here. The album also exposes the band's ability to write softer, poppier songs such as "Claire" and "Caveman" which undoubtfuly influenced by bands like Mineral, Sunny Day Real Estate, etc.

Their follow up album, Clarity is what i would consider to be Jimmy Eat World's magnum opus, the "holy grail" of their discography. The band went for a "cleaner" route on this album, resulting in a more polished alternative-rock sound with hooks bigger than the entire state of Texas. Clarity also marks the start of Jim Adkins as the band's main singer with Tom providing backing vocals instead of the other way around like it had been previous to the album. And to be honest, Jim does have stronger vocals than Tom's. Jim's voice has more range and therefore works better with the direction the band has taken, musically.

Lyrically, Clarity is also worth mentioning. The simplicity and yet brutally-honest look on (presumably) male adolescence problems without being too angsty or whiny is their main recipe, and oh they used it so well. It's hard not to revisit those adolescence struggles and feelings that Clarity manage to evoke intensely every time it's on . It's almost as if every feeling is distorted and being put into words, turning Clarity into an emotional roller coaster ride for those who like to hold on to their youth memories.

Clarity also sees the band usage of various instruments to compliment their song arrangements, such as synths, drum machines, violins, cellos and a few others. The last track on the album "Goodbye Sky Harbor" clocks at 16 minutes and sees them on their more adventurous side. The song twist and turns itself into a repetitive drum machined, guitars and vocals layered passages and it's certainly quite a treat to see them play this song live (see videos below).

Next up, is what i believe their most selling album up-to-date, titled Bleed American in which sees them signed with Dreamworks. The singles from this album such as "The Middle", "A Praise Chorus" and "Sweetness" enjoyed a quite significant amount of airplay on MTV and radio stations. These songs are among fans' favorite due their sing-along-able qualities. Although they are good songs, i feel like the lyrics on Bleed American for the most part aren't up to par with their previous efforts. The album is also somewhat overproduced and the singles were definitely overplayed. It's a step on the wrong direction for me, personally.

Thankfully, Futures released in 2004, revitalized my faith in the band. It's somewhat a combination of Clarity songwriting and Bleed American style of heavier songs and production. The music and lyrics are also more mature and "darker" which i find to be really endearing. As far as their more commercial output goes, Futures is better than Bleed American as an album. It has more variety, it's less cheesy and the lyrics are definitely a huge step up in quality. "Kill" and "23" are some of the best songs they've written.

It pains me to say, however that Futures is actually the last Jimmy Eat World record worth listening to, in my opinion. I gave Chase This Light and Invented a fair chance, but they just didn't do it for me. You can tell it's still the same band, but the songs are just dull and sounds uninspired. At this point, they're just another top 40 pop-rock band to me.

Following up a highly successful sold out Clarity tour, in which the band play Clarity in its entirety, they finally decided to hit up Indonesia as part of their SEA conquest. Well, i went and i can definitely say it was worth spending money just for witnessing "Goodbye Sky Harbour" alone. It was one of the best shows i've been to (and i've been to tons of shows). The performance was flawless, the sound was crystal clear, everything was on point. The only complaint i have would be the number of new songs they played and that there weren't enough Clarity material and not a single song off of Static Prevails. Oh well. They did, however play almost every single of their more popular songs and it was great night overall.

Yup, i took videos.

Asobi Seksu live @ Smesco Center, Jakarta (26-11-2010)

Yes I realise this post is about two months late, making it the worst piece of "journalism" ever. I don't care.

I remember hearing Asobi Seksu for the first time back in 2007 or 2008. I was instantly hooked by their pop sensibilities. I still think of them as a pop band. They have shoegaze/dream pop qualities in their music for sure, but instead of trying to replicate the early 90's British sounds like so many newer shoegaze bands do, they simply put those elements to compliment their music perfectly. It's hard not to be reminded of Kevin Shields' guitar work by songs like Sooner or Pink Cloud Tracing Paper. At the same time, i find it hard to compare their sound as a whole to other band(s). They definitely have their own thing going on.

One of Asobi's unique qualities is the singer Yuki's high-pitched vocals, mixed with tons of reverb to give them that lush effect. Some of their lyrics are written in English and some in Japanese. The English songs are sung with a hint of Japanese accent, giving them a certain charm on its own. Guitarist James Hanna also steps up to vocal duties on a few songs, and he does them fairly well. Ultimately, it's Yuki's vocals that makes Asobi Seksu stand out.

The show was held on Friday night, so i rushed straight from the office after work to the venue in fear of getting caught by the deadly Friday traffic. It turns out i got there way too early, like by a few hours. The door should've been opened by 8 o'clock, but the show didn't start until like 9.30. Bollocks.

The show was held in Smesco Centre, a massive convention hall with an equally massive stage up front. The entire floor was covered in carpet and the ceiling was at least 20-30 feet up high. It's certainly more than an adequate venue for a music show. Unfortunately, this is also why the show "fails" that night. The venue was simply way too big for a middle-sized band like Asobi Seksu. They were less than 300 people in the room. It wasn't even one-quarter filled. If only the promoter would've been more careful in choosing a more proper venue (read : smaller), they they could've cut down the overpriced ticket, which i'm sure would've lead to more people coming out.

Sajama Cut was the only local opening band that night. I used to listen to them a few years ago so i'm somewhat familiar with their music. I think they are better-suited to smaller gigs with more intimate crowd. It seemed that they've re-arranged their old songs to give it a more arena-rock feel in order to make them work in bigger stage. I personally don't think it works, and their performance leaves a lot to be desired. Sajama Cut shouldn't have been the opening band for the show.

After much anticipation, Asobi Seksu finally hit the stage and opened their set with Strawberries. I have to say they sounded way noisier and fuller than they are on records, which is always a good thing. The vocals were on point, and all the instruments cut through the mix quite nicely. They seemed to have done their homework for this tour by filling most of their set with songs off of "Citrus", arguably their best album to date and not coincidentally, fans favorite. They also played a few songs off of their self-titled, their latest offering "Hush" and even two new songs which will be on their new album, out in 2011. Their cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain Never Understand was the final icing on the cake, putting their performance that night as one of my favorites of 2010.

Of course i have videos

The Raveonettes live @ New Majestic, Bandung (12-11-2010)

Pictures were taken by Michael Killian. All credit goes to him.

The Raveonettes myspace
The Raveonettes website

I'll be totally honest here. I hadn't heard a single Raveonettes song until like two months ago. I had heard their names being thrown around on the internet a couple of times, i just never bothered to check them out. Then i heard they were coming over to Indonesia. The ticket was like 15 AUD which is about as good of a deal as you can get over here. So i headed over to their myspace and listened to a few songs on there. My first impression was "well they sounded like if Jesus and Mary Chain and The Velvets had a baby". Despite liking those bands, i wasn't really impressed at first.

I decided to give them a fair shot and downloaded a few albums. I can tell you that they changed their sound with each album, although you can probably still tell it's the same band. They definitely nail The Jesus And Mary Chain guitar tone down to a T when they wanted to. Check out their first release, Whip It On for example of this (more Psychodandy than Darklands). It's also their most straight forward, noisy, rocking album. The difference between them and JAMC is that if JAMC seem to be leaning toward the simplicity of what would later become post-punk, The Raveonettes seem to be influenced more by 50's/60's garage pop/rock. Strangely enough, they sounded way more modern and "today" compared to JAMC due to their uses of synths.

Their releases post-Whip It On see them improving on songwriting department and putting the "noisy" parts more strategically. The songs are more varied and less one dimensional. They also seemed to be getting poppier and more accessible with each album (not a bad thing in my book). Their last output, In And Out Of Control even sounds like a lost Blondie album at times. One thing that doesn't change within the equation of their music is the juxtaposition of the male/female pop style of harmonized vocals and the "dark" nature of the lyrical content being sung. Much like The Velvet Underground, much of their lyrics seem to revolve around relationships gone sour, lust, rape, violence, and everything in between.

Let's get back to the show review. After driving down for about 2 hours, me and friends got to the venue. We missed one of the opening bands, Denial. I've seem them before and they definitely got the JAMC thing too, making them a definite good pick for the show. I don't know how to describe Cuts, the second opening band of that night. They were simply awful. Two female singers and the rest of the band dressed as if they were going for A Clockwork Orange audition. None of them seemed to be older than twenty. And they play some kind of boring modern rock-dance hybrid or whatever it was.

Finally it was The Raveonettes time to hit the stage. To put it simply, they killed it. The guitar tone was amazing, especially Sune's. The surfy clean tone is to die for. I never wanted a Jazzmaster more than that night. The crowd vibe was really good too. There were plenty of singalong sessions and the band seemed to really enjoy themselves that night. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by crowd reaction given it was their first time in Indonesia.

The Raveonettes also mix it up a bit on stage that night. A few songs started with Sune and Sharin and their guitars with the rest of the band joining in. Sharin and the drummer also swap duties on second guitar and drums for a bit. Their setlist was pretty good that night, it was a good mix of old and newer songs. It was one of the funnest shows i've been too this year and i definitely like them more after that night.

Here's a couple of videos i took off of their set that night. Enjoy!