Malaysian Artistes for Unity

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Here In My Home

My dad and I laughed ourselves silly after we deciphered what they were really trying to say in this support email from TM Online Services. True story.

Thank you for using TM Online services.

We has been escalated your enquiries to the respective department for further action and we will feed you back in a soonest time.

For any further assistant, please do not hesitate to call 100 (Product & Service) or email at enquiry@tm.com.my

Thank you and regards,
TM Online Admin

Don’t contact them folks, or they’ll escalate your enquiries to an assistant who is even further away than than the original one.

Of course, the language in the email reminded me of something, so I went to the site found a photo of the guy who is the likely author of this email:

moar funny pictures

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I can has servizes

I’m away on a work trip from 25 Aug - 1 Sept. This is a scheduled post.

When hanging out with the 5 bloggers during the DiGi Fu-yoh event and reading their posts after, I realised one thing: a lot of locals are still going “Who’s this? Who’s that? Never heard of them.”

Alamak.

Without further ado, here’s a list of local musicians that you really should check out. This is strictly a personal take. There are a lot of of other bands and singers out there but I’m limiting my list to groups that I like and listen to.

Jason Lo
Lo is likely the most recognisable of Malaysian musicians because more people listen to the radio and watch TV than pay any attention to the scene itself. His songs include “Evening News”, “So Julie” and the more recent “Operator, the line is dead”. He recently played in Kuching for the DiGi Fu-yoh Street Blast. Lo is from Kuching. Listen to more of his music here.

OAG
I love these guys. They are the pioneer alternative rock band in Malaysia, with 15 years of experience in the industry. Lead singer Radhi was, in his own words, “born in Sibu, raised in Kuching and spoilt in KL”. The energy and ease in which Radhi engages the audience, coupled with the polished deliver from the band makes watching them live a great experience. Hear them out here.

Tempered Mental
Tempered Mental is another one of my favourite local alternative rock group. I blogged a little about them here, and I still remember how pleasantly surprised I was to find that they are actually very, very good. The song arrangements are impeccable and vocalist/bassist Melina has a strong, smooth voice. She’s from Kuching. Her band members are from other parts of Sarawak but they’re all based in KL. Samples here!

SingleTrackMind
STM is Alex Wong, who is also the founder of Music Canteen and is the Malaysian band who opened for the new INXS’s concert last year. He launched his new album [hey.] earlier this year and I like it a lot. Another thing I like about STM is that he uses his resources to help the local talent along (i.e. Music Canteen). Hear him out.

Evenstarr
Funny story. Some years ago, some friends and I were walking past The Joint (now gone) in town when we were accosted by Evenstarr’s then-manager Bryan Nicholas. He lured us in for a show and that was my introduction to local bands. I didn’t really like their music at the time, but when I heard them again a few years later, they have gotten much better. Now I’m a big fan. Still waiting for that new album! Listen to them here.

Owen Nicholas
I was introduced to Owen’s music during one of our local gigs and fell in love with the whole singer-songwriter deal from then on. His music is the kind that makes you ache for someone you lost or will never have. I do like torturing myself. Hear his stuff!

Other Malaysian (although non-Kuching) musicians you should check out include Juwita Suwito, Reza Salleh, Rhapsody (what d’ya mean, you broke up!) and Mei Chern. I’m sure that there are some I missed but if I were to try getting them all, this post will be sitting in my drafts for a few more months!

How can you find out more about local bands?

1. Bookmark Kaki Kuching. That’s where I post news about music events, including Songwriters’ Round.
2. Attend music events. DiGi and Hotlink organise concerts for their subscribers. Senso and MOJO also host music events and album launches. Tru Events organises things like BandKuest. Keep an eye on the news. Or see 1.

Good sources to learn more about local and regional music:

• JUNK Magazine
• Music Canteen
• AMP

Related Posts:

• One last hurdle for Sarawakian bands
• Welcome, JUNK readers?

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Malaysian Indie Music 101

MPH, Popular, Harris and Times are not selling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in protest against Carrefour and Tesco, who are selling the book at RM69.90, hella cheaper than the recommended price of RM109.90. If you pre-ordered, you can still pick it up. According to one news article, you can opt to get a refund of your deposit (from MPH, if I read it right).

Read the full news article here.

Wow, did HP7 Day here get fucked up or what?

Over here in Kuching, Popular and Times had to turn away walk-ins because they had to follow the directive from their head office. There was a Popular release party planned in Tun Jugah, but it was canceled along with all nationwide events under the “Big 4″ book stores.

You can still get a copy at the local, non-chained book stores like Premiere at Sarawak Plaza, Sinar Suci and MyBookStore at Jalan Haji Taha, and quite likely, Red Bookstore at the State Library and University Book Store at Wisma Saberkas.

I don’t think we’re really that affected because we don’t have those hypermarts here and still have to get the book through one of the book stores at the standard price.

When Joyce SMSed me yesterday with the news, I actually considered getting her to grab one for me because I’m not willing to shell out RM110 for a copy this year. But she ended up not going. As a consumer who is otherwise ambivalent about the last book and didn’t bother pre-ordering, I can’t really complain about the price slash!

On the other hand, the stores in Kuching actually had something planned this year. Things like this don’t usually happen in Kuching and it sucks bad to have that mat yanked from right under you.

Book sellers hoping to see returns for their promotional and marketing efforts are pissed off. I doubt if the hypermarts are turning a profit by selling the book. They don’t need to because they sell everything else. They are only seen as taking business away from the real book sellers. Says Eric Forbes of MPH:

Hypermarkets should just stick to their baked beans, ground coffee, prune juice, anchovies, chicken, milk and other stuff and leave books to the bookstore chains. The book’s distributor, Penguin Books, should withdraw stocks from the hypermarkets and let the bookstores do what they do best—sell books.

Somewhere else in the food chain, independent little book shop owners like Raman of Silverfish is cackling. Raman, who famously decided not to sell the seventh book this time, had this to say about the whole issue:

Isn’t that exactly what major chains have been doing to independent bookshops all these years? When they sell the latest release of a best-selling author below cost at their four-times-a-year ‘warehouse’ sales to attract customers, what did they think they were doing? Now they are protesting? Is that rich or what?

Meanwhile, the hypermarts are saying this:

When contacted, Carrefour Malaysia corporate communications and public relations manager Yuswanis Yusof said they wanted to provide the best for their customers.

She said besides selling groceries and other essential products, the hypermarket wanted to provide a chance for their customers to purchase the book at a lower price.

“It all depends on how one markets and promote its products,” she added.

Tesco Malaysia division manager Janice Chan when contacted said they wanted to make sure their customers could read the book at a cheaper price.

“We are popular for selling products at a lower price, and books are no exception.

The move is genius on their part. Lure the Potheads in with cheap books. While they (and their parents) are there, maybe they will consider buying some of their other very cheap products.

The boycott itself is interesting. You have to wonder what they’re doing while they are not selling Harry Potter this weekend.

The four chains, with a total of 100 outlets nationwide, said they were protesting the indiscriminate discount and wanted to show customers that they were not “blatantly profiteering” from them.

Shutting down sales will deliberately force people to head to the next natural option - the cheap one. Help the hypermarts finish their stock quickly and lure the stragglers back to the major book retailers with the delayed release events and additional freebies. Make it worth the wait and price.

As I said earlier, the price war actually made me reconsider buying a copy this year. I don’t really care what their motivations are; if I can save RM40, why not? Great!

Unfortunately for chain stores that are not in KL, not selling to walk-ins on release day can be a killer. Most of the people who went only found out at the counter! Three of Kuching’s major book stores are within walking distance of each other. Popular and Times make up two of them. Guess which book store is profiting from the walk-ins?

I certainly didn’t expect the release of HP7 in Malaysia to be quite this dramatic.

See Sharon Bakar’s post for more reactions.

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Harry Potter & The Coup in Malaysia

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Flood Relief