Back for a while

Hmm.

Hey all, I'm doing fine in NS, although next week promises top be hell especially due to unco-operative platoon mates from neighbouring Sections -___-.

Well for the uninformed, this is the denominations in the army:

1 Company = 200 people = 4 Platoons

1 Platoon = 50 people = 4 Sections = 12 or 13 guys per section.

For the record, I'm currently in Raven company, Platoon 4, Section 2, bed 5 (in short, BMTC2/R 4205). Still alive and kicking (very!), but please send your regards via SMS or a phone call after 2145 hrs. I'll be bringing in my guitar, Ipod and probably a good book or two to keep myself unbored.

Take care of yourselves then, and pray hard for my welfare and well-being.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

The gig as coooool

Hmm.

Ark Analogy played it's first gig yesterday along Orchard road. Despite the shitty sound, we played alright, had a lot of fun, and did something for a good cause (almost). Oh yeah, I'm also wickedly pleased that we played VERY loudly, to the point that no less than 3 stores / outlets complained about being unable to hear their telephone conversations behind closed doors, which I think is utter bullshit.

I would also like to thank Kawai and his gf, Colin, Amanda, John and Joe for dropping by and listening to us perform. Much apologies to Steph and her Nigel for not being able to update you guys on the last-minute change in venue.

Anyway the setlist was as follows:

1st Set:

Jumpin' Jack Flash
You Shook Me All Night Long
Pocketful of Blues* (dedicated this to songwriters who had writers' block)
Immigrant Song
Rush Hour* (dedicated this to super stressed people, esp 3rd yr NYP students)
Tell Me Again*

2nd Set:

Bad Moon Rising
A Horse With No Name
Wonderwall
Hey Jude (dedicated this to guys who had no girlfriends)

3rd Set:

11:05*
Highway To Hell (dedicated this song to fellow tekong-goers)
Blues in G*
Communication Breakdown
Whole Lotta Love
The Healing of Time* (dedicated this song to lovers who were hurting)
I Believe In A Thing Called Love

* = original composition

One more thing, I'll be in Tekong tomorrow for the next 2 weeks (or more), so I'll see you guys once I get back from my desert island.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

The GIG is tomorrow!

Hmm.

Well my friends, the gig is tomorrow, Tuesday 12th June, 3-5pm.

Coming to you live in front of Takashimaya / Ngee Ann City Plaza, Ark Analogy will be playing 7 covers, 6 originals and 4 acoustic songs. Kindly come down before 3pm so that we can have a pre-gig chat, and perhaps for you to find a nice spot in order to stay out of the heat.

However, if you're REALLY keen / fanatical, you could join us for our pre-gig jam session held at 10am-12noon at Paradiz Centre basement 1, Music Ensemble Studios, the middle room. You can ask either Pauline or Steven where we are, and I'm sure you will soon be able to discern the rock and roll music permeating through the middle room door.

We would also like to extend this invitation to all of your friends who would like to enjoy some lively (and loud!) music, especially since extra support / fan presence would be most welcome and appreciated.

Just in case you're wondering why I'm making such a big deal out of this, FYI I will be entering the army on the 14th of June (yes, it's this Thursday), so this is one last hurrah for us before I shave my head, don the camoflauge overalls and become a slave to the Singapore Armed Forces on that desert island.

So once again, feel free to drop by and give us some love. We're probably going to need it.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

Was tired but it was good

Hmm.

Work yesterday was just... *groooaaaannnnsss* tiring. Stock-taking, I tell you is one evil which comes with any sales job. What makes it worse is that I slept at 1am the previous night helping my dad pack his equipment for an exhibition in Thailand. 5+ boxes with some weighing in at an excess of 20kg is no mean feat man.

Then yesterday morning I had to wake up around 7:30, to help my dad do the final loading of the boxes onto the wooden pallet and secure then in place with strong straps and cling-wrap so that the boxes will not shift when being shipped / lorried-about.

At my current level of physical and mental state whereby I need to focus on so many things at many points in one day... 6.5 hours of sleep is just too little. Yeah I know plenty of you guys out there are surviving on much less and I think the human race will probably evolve to a point whereby one just needs to plug their brain into a wall plug and charge for 2.5 hours and they're all ready to go back to work again.

Anyway, before I went to work, I had to kip over to Colin's place to retrieve the Esplanade outlet's keys, before heading home for a quick shower and to get my guitar, pedalcase and stuff. I reached Esplanade 15 min late (sorry Vincent!) and I was in a state of near-exhaustion. Imagine carrying a 3kg load on your back, a 2kg load around your shoulder and a 15kg load on one arm and walking a combined distance of 2km in under 20 minutes. Can die man.

In the end I was working at the excelsior outlet, and the moment I saw the clock hit 7:25, I started to close the store and clicked the lock shut at 7:33 precisely. After walking all the way back to Esplanade to return the keys to Vincent, I trekked to city hall with my gear to get on the MRT ride to Dhoby Ghaut.

I reached the jam studio about 10 minutes late, but the guys came in only 30 seconds later... apparently they had just had their makan, while my stomach growled on with a lack of nourishment (argh).

As we set up our gear, we noticed that the band next door had their bassist's amp practically on 11. I can't understand why some bass players just can't understand the term "volume control". Is your drummer THAT deaf??? Are YOU as a bassist DEAF as well???

Once everyone was ready we kicked start our jam with "Jumpin' Jack Flash", followed by plenty more songs. At 8:50, we had polished off about 7 songs. I called for a break, and when I came out, to my surprise and a lingering sense of dread, I saw Mr Porteous of the Exxit, lounging outside with a fag in his hand. Sitting next to him was Ark Analogy's former bassist, Tobias, and behind was Steph, their drummer. Realising that ignoring them was not the way to go, I decided to say hello.

What was interesting was the fact that it seems like the few members of The Exxit had heard what Ark Analogy was playing inside the studio. Tobias even plucked up the courage to ask me "was that a new original?" I had no idea what song he was referring to,, but I resisted the temptation to say "yeah, that's the 6th original since you disappeared without any notice and since I happily left the Exxit". Considering that they were courteous but silent, that seemed like a good course to undertake.

Upon finding Stan, Liesl and Drea the four of us trooped back into the studio where I promptly introduced everybody to each another. We kicked off the 2nd half with a slightly limping Communication Breakdown but we did rectify it with a 2nd try later in the hour. I guess our guests enjoyed themselves despite the high volumes, but I hoped that they were pleased with an updated rendition of "Healing of Time".

All in all, the jam went pretty well despite Mervyn being slightly sick and Boon being rather tired as well, along with my guitar string breaking mid-song and forcing us to re-do "Pocketful of Blues" with 2 false starts. But the mere presence of my old friends there to listen to us play made me pull out all the stops and I produced some pretty good solos.

On a new note, Ark Analogy will be trying to get a gig along Orchard road on the 12th of June, 3pm onwards. Details coming soon.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

ROARR!!!!

Hmm.



Fantastic. Absolutely smashingly awesome. What am I talking about? Thursday evening's jam session with the guys of course.

At long last, Ark Analogy sounds like a real, breathing, struttin' rock and roll machine. We've been together for abut 6 months and now at long last, after a false start last week in which our morale was pretty low, we've come back with a greater inner fire.

I suppose we had alot of time to warm up and practise during the day due to it being a public holiday. Out of the 11 songs we played we only made no more than a handful of mistakes btween the three of us. I'm sincerely glad that we as a unit are able to bring out our passion for those songs, and to give it a greater sense of depth despite only having 3 instruments (and a vocal) to determine our sound.

Which kind of brings me to an individual who used to play bass with me and Mervyn before we found Boon. Or rather it was only because of this individual that we had to look for a new bassist. How to describe him... he honestly was too busy with his other commitments, namely school, his church duties and of course his co-curricular activities. Now I'm not blaming him for having alot on his plate, but what I'm somewhat annoyed with is the fact that Ark Analogy had to grind to a full stop for close to 3 weeks simply because he refused to contact us.

No amount of sms, emails or msn contacting would seem sufficient to bring him back into the fold. You could almost say that he willingly dropped away from us without a word and without a sound. Before his 'disappearance' he stated that he felt intimidated working with Mervyn and myself, citing that he did not feel confident playing with us (to be honest at that point in time, Mervyn and I were gelling musically like peanut butter to bread) and he felt that he made us as a band sound bad. At that point in time, I refused to believe that an individual his age could have such a low level of pride in himself. However, one must move on.

And so he has. It seems a certain Mr Porteous of The Exxit, whom I had a dispute on this blog many months ago due to my leaving of the Exxit, has decided that he is desperate enough to knock upon the door of my former bassist. Such a small world isn't it? Well I wish these individuals the best of luck. Perhaps they can actually start making real music.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy