Keef's Life

Last week, since I had a 40 percent off coupon plus 5 bucks reward from a bookstore here, I asked barista Aco and Ujang what books to buy.

Ujang, somewhat unsurprisingly, came up with the Handbook of Development Economics. Aco, however, had (better) idea: the biography of Keith Richards, Life.

It's the book everybody in town now talk and write about. From David Remnick of Newyorker to Michiko Kakutani of NYT to our own Taufiqurrahman --who lambasted a mediocre review by a music critic-turned-political pundit in our you-know-what daily.

I ordered my copy. Keith Richards', that is.

To celebrate Keef's biography, the Cafe plays Happy from Exile on Main St. album and Salt of the Earth from Beggars Banquet album.

It shows that the market does work!

I once heard that the US economy will never collapse because of three industries: music, books and film. The music industry seems to be fading away due to piracy and MP3s. But this and that articles show that the industry is searching for a new model. Apparently we shall never underestimate how the market economy works.

Now tell it to our fellow Malaysians...

NKOTB or Sarah Palin?

This morning, on the metro, I read this line from a column in the Express, the commuter's free paper.

Had I known that VP debate would be tonight and that Sarah Palin would be the Republican candidate, I would have told my girl, "Hell, no, I'm not goin to no NKOTB concert on the night of this historical debate!"

--(a blogger who) attended NKOTB concert Thursday night, after buying tickets a couple months ago

I could not help but grinning.

A Dose of Richman (Will Bring Back the Child in You)

A Dose of Richman (Will Bring Back the Child in You)
by Pasha

Hello everyone! I’m back! I can hear the Manager rant, “Finally! He decides to show up!” (teehee). Well, I’m back to bring you musical pleasure so that you may achieve what I call “eargasm”. This time I would like to do something different. Usually I bring forward an assortment of music from different artists. Well now I would like to play songs from just one artist. He’s not just some artist, he’s a pioneer of punk rock but his version of punk is different from the likes of Sex Pistol, the Clash, or even Television, and the reason I really like his music is because it’s FUN! And I’m sure little Alfie, Rara, and Laksmi would also enjoy his music because it’s humorous, lively, naïve…and FUN! Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you Jonathan Richman!

Here’s a song to start of entitled “I’m A Little Airplane Now”, the kids will love this one. Exciting huh? Brings you back to the days when you were in kindergarten right? Now more on Richman, he’s a native of Natick, MA and was and is still an important element in the Boston music scene. Even though he now resides in California, He still finds the time to cheer the Redsox. Next up is another track the children would also enjoy, “I’m A Little Dinosaur”. Now, where’s that little dinosaur? In mid 70s Richman formed the Modern Lovers in Boston and released a milestone album “The Modern Lovers” with great songs such as “Roadrunner” and “Pablo Picasso”, but I’m not going to play them. If you ask me, “The Modern Lovers” while it’s a great album but you don’t get the whole Richman persona, try “Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers Live 1977”, now THAT is a GREAT record. “Roadrunner” is then covered by the Sex Pistols and David Bowie then put out his own rendition of “Pablo Picasso”. Richman lyrical style is funny, honest, and philosophical and yet naïve and the same time. His song “Affection” is one example.

The Modern Lovers soon after broke up, keyboardist Jerry Harrison then left to join the legendary Talking Heads. Richman then assemble another formation of the Modern Lovers but soon after began switching to a solo act. Here’s another fun song, “Rollercoaster by the Sea”. Now after having a rollercoaster ride, wouldn’t be great to have an ice cream? But where’s the ice cream man? Oh here he is.

Have you ever seen the movie “There’s Something About Mary?” Of course all of you have or at least most of you. Remember there were two guys narrating the story in the movie, one guy with a guitar and the other with a drum kit? Well, the guy with the guitar is Richman. You know, the one who got shot at the end of the movie. Here’s an example of Richman’s comedic antics entitled “I Was Dancing in A Lesbian Bar”, This song is hilarious! Really! I really like the part where he sings “…in the first bar/things are stop and stare/in this bar/things are laissez-faire”, it’s a gag!

I save the best for last. This song is my favorite of all Richman’s catalog. This always help brings the best in you whenever you were down. It’s beautifully written, this one is truly a masterpiece. This is “Morning of Our Lives”. Goodnight…

My side project...

... is contributing to this music blog, initiated by an old colleague of mine, along with Jakarta Post's M. Taufiqurrahman (a.k.a. or own MT).

So here's the story. Philips just recently discovered a new hobby: hunting old, and new, vinyl records. You know, the old-fashioned records that we play in a turntable. Yes, in the era of iPod and MP3, this guy is a bit counter-culture. (In the old-school disco music, we often hear some unique voices, resulted from a technique called 'scratch' -- holding-and-releasing the record while playing. Oriental, Music Room, Stardust and Fire generations, stand up, please!).

Now he is focusing his search on records listed in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Rock N' Roll Album. We used to be a regular listener of M97FM, a radio station for classic rock fans. But the station ceased to exist; a great loss for us. At least we'd like to keep the spirit by blogging on some the albums on the list.

Here's my post on U2's The Joshua Tree, and Metallica's Master of Puppets.

The Beatles, they never die

Just bought and listened to the latest Beatles project: Love. Well, actually, it's George Martin and Giles Martin's project, compiling and remixing the music from a fabulous show by the Cirque du Soleil, which co-founded by the late George Harrison. I must say, the album was a brilliant works by the Martins. The Beatles songs are all masterpiece. So it requires some skills and guts to experiment with the songs. But they did it, brilliantly.

The album begins with the vocal part of 'Because.' The second track starts with the opening chord of 'A Hard Days Night,' followed by Ringo's drum solo from 'The End' to pave the way for 'Get Back,' which is the main song, then ends with a piece from 'Glass Onion.' All the transitions go very smoothly.

In another track when the Martins play 'Drive My Car,' then, while keeping the rhythm part, suddenly the song goes to 'Say the Word' and 'Look What You're Doing,' then goes back to "Beep beep em beep beep, yeah..." part of 'Drive My Car.' Another brilliant part is when 'Strawberry Fields Forever' starts with the Antholgy version of the song. Then, during outro, the suddenly turns to 'Hello Goodbye' -- the "Hella, hey hello-ah" part.

But the most challenging one is, I think, when the Martins play 'Within You Without You' (written and sung by Ravi Shankar-influenced George Harrison) using the rhythm part of the psychedelic 'Tomorrow Never Knows.' Just awesome!

The other tracks seem to be just their original versions. But when we listen carefully, they are not. There's a glimpse of Paul's riff of 'Blackbird' in 'Yesterday.' George Martin also introduced the orchestra part for George's 'Still My Guitar Gently Weeps.'

Ah yes, besides 'Yesterday,' there are two tracks from the dishmop era: 'From Me To You' and 'Help!' And my adrenaline still gets increased when listening to 'Back in the USSR' and 'Revolution.' The shortcoming, if any, is that they don't play with 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band' as much as the they did with the other tracks.

I happened to watch a glimpse on Cirque's play on TV. It's a sheer brilliant performance as well. Especially they way they interpret and visualize Ringo's 'Octopus's Garden' and 'Lady Madonna' for a stage performance.

What Sjamsu's doing when not blogging?

Mostly, nowadays, he's helping the government negotiating a new FTA.

Other thing that I consider is more interesting: working on this project with his high-school friend (also Ujang's) Dave Lumenta, who's also an irregular visitor of this Cafe. (In case you don't know, Sjamsu is the only real musician of the Cafe barristers).

Here's the background story according to Sjamsu:

The idea is to replicate the repressive environment of the '80s, when TVRI programs were full of 'security and order' jargons. Thanks to Dave who already had the basic composition, and someone crazy enough to upload Anita Rahman's news clip (from the year 1982 - a.p.) in Youtobe.

Note: the TVRI news clip was about the infamous Lapangan Banteng riot. Enjoy.

Metro Jakarta Cafe (a.k.a Warkop DKI)

To my knowledge, in our cafe, AP and Pasha hold the highest authority for anything related to Warkop DKI.

Can I then request you guys a thorough Warkop DKI's OST review? Here are two teasers from YouTube: rock n' roll medley by the late Kasino Lennon and Indro Jagger of Wah Gede Banget Band in Dongkrak Antik (How do you translate this title, by the way?), and Nyanyian Kode (from god knows what film).

LOL

The Ballad of John and Yoko ... and Krugman

I, too, never blamed Yoko for The Beatles breakup. According to The Asahi Shimbun, this documentary does not follow the conventional wisdom (or unwisdom?) that Yoko was the evil person behind the Fab Four quarrels. What if it's all John's fault? What if it's the group's itself? Of course this documentary does not just focus on that one issue. Reading the article, I would expect to see "good, old-school storytelling", "big zeitgeist tapestry" (of Lennon's life), some never-seen-before Beatles' footages, and of course, John's "truly, even geeky, love" to Yoko. Must be interesting. Except that I .. don't have the time (or more precisely, I just missed the showtime). I was actually planning to see it at Toho Cinemas tonite (where else can we see non-dubbed foreign movies here in Tokyo?).

Alas, we all are exhausted. After two long days of discussing papers, we thought we deserved a decent dinner. So there we were, eating and chatting. The thing is, you would forget the time when you talk about new, interesting books. And this time, it was Krugman's newest one. An economist who had finished reading it briefed us about the book. He said Krugman calls for raising U.S. minimum wage. Now that's interesting. Another guy responded, saying that Krugman's idea was a reflection of fragmentation in otherwise strongly established trade theory. Ouch.

I'll see the documentary later. And I'll grab that book in Narita tomorrow.

Picture © 2006 Lions Gate Films Inc.

Big daddy rock and roll and what follows

Pasha, a salembanite from Ruang 413 is one of few economists who knows music very well and reads music books in between his econometrics. Some of you have complained that my playlists are a bit boring and damn it, "customer is king", you say. So, here it is. Ladies and gents: Pasha.
- Manager

Big daddy rock and roll and what follows

by Pasha

I’ve been a regular visitor of the café. The Manager felt that the tunes being played in the café is rather monotonous (monotonic?? J). She asked me to breathe new life to the musical atmosphere in the café by coming up with a weekly playlist, which I’m happy to oblige. You all know that Rizal and Aco like jazz, while Ape digs heavy metal or rather hair bands (right Pe? :D). I’ll do my best to accommodate different tastes while at the same time adding my own personal favorites, well actually they’re all my favorites. I would also like to do something different, rather than just provide you with weekly playlist, I think it would be interesting to share with you all the story behind the music. Sort of behind the scene to make it more appealing for you to read. It’s a bit digression from the usual posting here at the café but for me, I can’t learn economics without the good company of good music. So, without further ado, I give you this week personal picks.

Let’s start from the very beginning, the big daddy rock and roll. No, I’m not talking about Robert Johnson (I’m saving that for future posts). It’s not Elvis. He may be the king but he’s not the one who started all. But to be fair, he’s the one who brought rock and roll into popular audience. It may surprise you, I’m talking about Ike Turner. Yes, that infamous Ike Turner. In 1951, Ike Turner and his band “The Kings of Rhythms” released this song, Rocket 88. It is considered to be the first rock and roll song ever written. At that time the term “rock and roll” is not yet known. Back then, this type of music is called “Rhythm and Blues” or “R and B” for short and it is usually played in the black communities at that time, and this type of music have not yet cross over to the white communities, such as jazz. What is unique about this song is that it is the first song to use the now standard rock and roll chords. Thus, this is the grand daddy of rock and roll.

It is due to Alan Freed, a radio disc jockey in Cleveland, OH. At first, in his radio show he usually played jazz standards by the likes of Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, and other big bands. He soon got tired of playing the same music over and over again in his show and needed to play something new and completely different. So, he went to the record store he frequents. In there he saw white teenagers gathering in the black section, which turned out to be the rhythm and blues section. He then asked the store manager why were white kids crowding in the black section (back then segregation was still in effect in certain states in the US). The manager simply replied that kids really enjoy that type of music. He got what he wanted, a fresh new music to bring into his radio show. He went home with numerous rhythm and blue records, among them are the relatively unknown Little Richard and Chuck Berry. But given the racial tension at the time, he needed a different name to call this new music. After considering several alternatives, he settled with the term “rock and roll” which was basically a code that he and his wife used if they want to have sex (funny how they come up with the phrase “sex, drugs, and rock and roll). Since then popular music is never the same and this is also the reason why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is situated in Cleveland. And so I give you this classic piece from Little Richard, Good Golly Miss Molly.

So, from then on new musicians emerged into the scene. So here it goes. First up, “The Killer” with the piano Jerry Lee Lewis with Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On. Let’s turn up a bit with Johny Be Goode from Chuck Berry. Next up, Buddy Holly with Peggy Sue. I think you all know this classic from Ritchie Valens.

Too close off, there was an anomaly. In the midst of the popularity of rock and roll, a jazz composition received a huge airplay in the radio. And so, I leave you with this tune from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. This is Pasha signing off, see you next week and happy thanksgiving!

My own stupid analysis: Indonesian rap music

Indonesian rap is annoying and stupid.

I know this might irritate some people and it shows my own ignorance. But, I can't stand it -- I was once told by economists here that there's nothing you could do with other people's taste; well I don't care. . . I just happened to be in a long ride with this damn bus, and all I could hear was that continuing weird noise called Indonesian rap.

I said "weird" and "noise" because of the following.

Rap music, I gather, is a part of hip-hop culture that uses rhyme and rhythm spitted mostly in a very fast beat. I'm no phonologist or morphologist, but I believe human tongue (and mouth) has its limit when it comes to spitting words quickly. It is then easier to spit one-syllable words than two-syllable words. English (and I believe African, too) words are dominated by one-syllables. At least for words you want to rap with. Fine, two-syllables are also used. But not much. Try this (from Usher feat Ludacris and Lil Jon):

I'm (1) in (1) the (1) club (1) with (1) my (1) homies (2), tryna (2) get (1) a (1) lil (1) V-I (2),
keep (1) it (1) down (1) on (1) the (1) low (1) key (1),
cause (1) you (1) know (1) how (1) it (1) feels (1).
I (1) said (1) shorty (2) she (1) was (1) checkin (2) up (1) on (1) me (1),
from (1) the (1) game (1) she (1) was (1) spittin (2) my (1) ear ( 2 or 1.5) you'd (1) think (1) that (1) she (1) knew (1) me (1).
So (1) we (1) decided (3 or 2.5) to (1) chill (1).

See, there are only 5 two-syllables and 1 three-syllable (even so, you can spit "decided" as "decid'd" -- so it sounds like a 2.5 only; like "ear" to "e'r", a 1.5). The rest are one-syllables. Imagine if this is to be adapted in Indonesian (forget about rhyme for now):

Aku (2) dalam (2) klab (1) dengan (2) teman-teman (4),
coba (2) dapatkan (3) sedikit (3) kesenangan (4!)
Jangan (2) berisik (3), kar'na (2) kau (1.5) tau (2) aku (2) s'dang (2) asik (2)....

.... and so on

Look how many twos and threes (and even fours) we got, just in the beginning! Now try visualize a rapper wannabe who raps with Indonesian words like that. Either he or she can be damn good with extremely fast tongue (Iwa K was fast!) or you would experience a torture.

Not that there's anything wrong with Indonesian words. They just don't go with rap, trust me. You may as well end up funny: you move your hip and wave your hands up and down. But your phonetic tools can't follow.

Even in singing, efficiency matters -- as the economist would say.

From the Manager

Happy new year, everybody!

From the Manager

Boy, I hate that Econ-101 series. Never known economics is even more boring than inflation, growth, and interest rates. Damn it.

Well, I'm glad the world is not just that. At least these bitches are back. And oh, this guy is entertaining (he's totally right: Ahmad Dhani is a genius!).

JakJazz wasn't so bad. (But what was Shakatak doing there?).

I'm playing Ray Charles. Hit the road, Jack!

From the Manager

Happy (belated) birthday to ... us :-)
.... It's really been a year?

From the Manager

The Café welcomes a junior member.

But, Fleetwood Mac?

From the Manager

What is it, three, four weeks? Yeah, I haven’t been playing music. But I’m sure you’re all fine with your iTunes or LimeWire. Or even cheap MP3 compilation CDs. What, like I don't know why you bought a 2 giga iPod?

I don’t owe you explanation, yes? But I feel like telling what I’ve been doing, besides pretending to understand economics. I’ve wandering around. To see other people’s cafes. Hanging out at an adorable competitor, Café Hayek, stopping by at a new café, Kedai Kebebasan, and listening people talk on modern politics at TPM Café. Or just to test the brain endurance at the Philosophy Café.

Of course I went shopping, too. I just bought a set of Acoustic Wave for the Café. Love the sound it delivers. And some books to keep you staying: Umberto Eco, Milan Kundera, Astrid Lindgren, and J.D. Salinger (they’re used books – since some of you are kleptos; hey, who took my thesaurus? I'm trying to show off, here, please!). I’ll put them on a new bookcase next to the old gamelan. No, I’m not gonna install a flat screen – you can borrow my Hicthcock collection, but go see movies somewhere else. As for games, I have bought three sets of scrabble. No chess or checkers – too trivial and boring.

Sounds like we’re gonna have more fun. Come, come. (No, we don’t have skin tax like them!)

Did I mention music?

Now I’m thinking Enya. Oh, she’s so relaxing. I’m carried away by her mystical soft mantras. It feels good. Especially after an aggression from a lesbian guy across the street.

Update: Shoot! I've linked too much to Wikipedia. Apparently, it ain't good.

From the Manager

Hi,

The Café is welcoming Ape back to Jakarta. That's why we were playing his requests last night.

And now we're gonna play other songs, requested by a frequent visitor. Here you go: 1) Long Ago and Far Away (Rod Stewart), and 2) I Wish You Love (Chrissie Hynde).

Enjoy.

From the Manager

Hi,

Treespotter just reminded us to write. Yes, I think we're getting lazy. Or I might have been too easy on the hosts. Aco was in Kyoto and now is back in Jakarta -- without even getting me some Japanese jazz CDs! Sjamsu is busy with something in DC, Rizal is doing a study in Medan, and Ujang and Ape are still having their heart attack from the silly World Cup.

Yeah, World Cup. Why do people love football (I mean soccer, no football, argh whatever) so much? Probably because it is good. Even my mom called me at 4am telling how sad she was that Zizou got kicked out.

As for me, I guess I'm more interested in Michelle Wie.

From the Manager

Hi,

Nu-soul, anyone?

A frequent visitor sent us an album of Maliq & D'Essentials. And it's not bad at all. In fact, we're convinced that this relatively new group can help motivate good music in Indonesia. Try their "Sampai Kapan" and "The One". They're quite fun.

If you're moved by Maliq & D'Essentials, we've got Braxton Brothers next in the palylist. Listen to their bass-sax dialogue in "Do What You Feel".

Happy soul-ing.

Hi from the Manager

Hi,

Is everybody hooked up in front of TV watching soccer already? While the Café is now open 24 hours to accomodate that, even our hosts are not so easy to distract, especially football soccer freaks like Ujang and Ape (don't get Ape started with football vs. soccer).

I was going to full-feature Ahmad Jamal. But considering the soccer fever, I think an amplified beat will be useful (albeit a little fusion). It's Casiopea, folks!

Allow me for a personal digression. Casiopea caught my ears when I was twelve. That was when drummer Akira Jimbo joined the group. From then on, I was addicted to Jimbo-Sakurai beat (Tetsuo Sakurai was the bassist). Then I was stunned and sad when I heard the band broke up. Jimbo and Sakurai left Casiopea and formed Jimsaku. Immediately I followed the new band. And it wasn't as great.

Lately I heard Jimbo is back to Casiopea. But it's never as good as then. So let's just enjoy their good days. Two albums in particular: Down Upbeat and Eyes of the Mind.

Goaaall!