Midnight Marvel | Official Site

Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus was a blast! Thanks to those...

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:52:30 +0800

Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus was a blast! Thanks to those who came and hung out with us!

Stuck In Thee Garage!

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:49:00 +0800

At the start of the “new rock revolution” (as coined by NME) back in the early noughties, I asked one of my biggest heroes how to get a sound education in garage rock. Mr. White simply said “Listen to Back From The Grave Vol. 1!”

And it’s one of the best advice I’ve gotten. As a band, we love garage rock for its freedom, its sharp-edged spirit and the very ideology that if you want to pick up an instrument and go kick out the jams with your friends, it’s full steam ahead. Why worry about technicality? Just dive in and be raw and crude! Spontaneity goes for the heart!

And if you want to join us a night of non-stop garage rock nuggets, come down to Home Club on June 22 where we attempt to do a DJ night! The up side? It’s free entry and there’s happy hour all night! Details below:

Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus June Session!
June 22
8pm – 10pm
Free Entry
Happy Hour all night
1 for 1 Beer & Housepour @ $12

More details at the Facebook event page. See you there!

Home Club, March 27, 2010 SETLIST:Spit It Out! / Wago Fever /...

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:07:00 +0800

Photo: Kaya Ow

Photo: Kaya Ow

Photo: Kaya Ow

Photo: Kaya Ow

Photo: Kaya Ow

Photo: Kaya Ow

Photo: Kaya Ow

Home Club, March 27, 2010

SETLIST:
Spit It Out! / Wago Fever / Your Girlfriend Knows / Straight Doll / Gold Mine / King Kong Beat / Gypsy Queen

In honor of Record Store Day in the U.S., the last record I...

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:23:00 +0800

In honor of Record Store Day in the U.S., the last record I bought was Under Great White Northern Lights by The White Stripes.

You can support your local indie record store too. My local hunt is Roxy Records situated at Excelsior Shopping Centre, #02-15, 5 Coleman Street, Tel: (+65) 6337 7783. Tell Paul we sent you.

*Update: Red Point Record Warehouse has tons of good second hand garage rock records too! Go check it out!

“Straight Doll” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:01:18 +0800

“Straight Doll” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

“King Kong Beat” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:00:10 +0800

“King Kong Beat” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

“Your Girlfriend Knows” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:58:00 +0800

“Your Girlfriend Knows” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

“Gold Mine” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:49:00 +0800

“Gold Mine” - Wedding Pop, 27 March 2010, Home Club

Whirlwind Weekend: Rock & Roots, Wedding Pop & Baybeats Audition!

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:11:00 +0800

Watch gigs. Play gigs. Rock. The last weekend of March was pretty awesome!

*Update: Wedding Pop also raised SGD $892 for charity organization, H.O.M.E.

On Friday, our pals from Gibson Singapore invited us to the Timbre Rock and Roots Festival. When we arrived, Buddy Guy was totally slaying and his drummer was super chillax behind the kit. Such intense grooving yet so laid-back. Highlight for me of the night. Shirley, meanwhile, was totally into Gipsy Kings and kept singing their song, “Volare”, on repeat. She said it was from her school days. I had no clue. I told her my untutored youth was entirely misspent on those Cantonese Heavenly Kings like Leon Lai. So yeah, folks. Story of my life. From Leon Lai to garage rock, my learning curve was totally steep, all thanks to Jack White. (Hello, Jack!)

Saturday was one of the most important days of our lives! Our good friend, Patrick Chng of the Oddfellows and TypeWriter, was getting married! Both of us were totally overwhelmed and forgot to be trigger happy. So here’re some photos I ripped off Chloe’s Facebook album:

Yup. That’s Pat and his lovely wife, Stephanie. Ever the musician, Pat’s still lugging a guitar around on his wedding day!

Here’s our two favorite boys (to men): Pat (groom) and Joe (best man). Both are special men in our lives because they have been helping the band in a lot more ways that one can imagine. Seeing them looking so suave got us quite excited too.

At the wedding luncheon, both speeches by Kelvin Tan (The Oddfellows, experimental solo artist) and Joe Ng (The Padres, Local Bar Boy and film composer) nearly moved me and Shirley on the verge of tears. I’ve known Pat for almost a decade now and what they said was so quintessentially Patrick Chng - the man with the heart of gold, always ready to give young bands opportunities, always there when you needed help. It was simply awesome to see Pat and Stephanie looking so blissful. No words could describe how happy everyone felt. So to that, the only suitable text to express ourselves would only be: \m/ \m/ \m/

See what I mean? We totally \m/ it!

After lunch, we milled about for two hours and headed to Home Club to help out with soundcheck for Livonia, Etc and ourselves at 5pm. Zapped the energy out of us! Thankfully, our friend Kaya was there to help us to load/unload our gear. Mucho gracias to rocking friends who helped, took photos of us and came to see us play. A great thank you to Daniel Sasson of Livonia who helped us during soundcheck and for letting us use his amp.

As for the set, well, what can I say? We did our best although we both felt that many things could have been better. Maybe playing during Earth Hour was totally clashing with the cosmos or something. Just gotta be more confident and rock harder the next time round. Live and learn!

Had to miss Etc’s set but am sure they were awesome. And Livonia totally rocked. Photos ripped from Jonathan’s (The Karl Maka) Facebook:

Always great to see Alfe having so much fun on stage, playing both guitars and percussion!

And of course, TypeWriter, the star band of the night because Pat’s playing in it! When Pat sung the second verse for “The Deepest Blue” for Stephanie, I felt like crying again. So emotional and sentimental because everyone loves Pat!

And the entire club giving a toast to the newly-weds!

All in all, I thought Pat’s big day was really awesome and super fun. Like Famie from the Pinholes would say, FEEL THE LOVE!

And the next day, even though we were feeling groggy from the gig, the late night and the beers, we made our way to Esplanade to check out the second round of the Baybeats audition to support our friends’ bands. Again, no excuses for bed hair and eyes ‘coz people like Chloe, Daniel and Kevin Mathews, who were there for Wedding Pop till late, were all at the venue by 9:30am! And we only arrived at 12:40pm.

Managed to catch Mark’s band, Sixx (photo above); Ian’s band, Cockpit; and of course, Gerald’s band, Waiting For Nothing, whom we were mainly there for. Fingers crossed for everyone so we could see them playing at Baybeats later this year. Send good vibes, y’all!

xx (and talk about big love),
Lennat

Our dear friend Patrick, who plays in TypeWriter and the...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:46:00 +0800

Our dear friend Patrick, who plays in TypeWriter and the Oddfellows, is getting married! Do come by for the wedding celebration gig where everyone is invited. Details as follows:

WEDDING POP!
featuring:
Livonia
TypeWriter
Etc
Midnight Marvel

Venue: Home Club (The Riverwalk #B1-01 To #B1-06, 20 Upper Circular Road)
Date: 27 March 2010
Time: 8pm - 11pm
Free entry before 9pm. After 9pm, $12 inclusive of a drink. Club rules apply.

The bands will donate all proceeds to H.O.M.E., a non-profit organisation that provides welfare assistance to migrant workers.

More details at the Facebook event page!

Home Club, January 30, 2010 SETLIST:Spit It Out / Wago Fever /...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:43:00 +0800

Photo: Jonathan Fong

Photo: Jonathan Fong

Photo: Jonathan Fong

Photo: Aw Siowting

Photo: Aw Siowting

Home Club, January 30, 2010

SETLIST:
Spit It Out / Wago Fever / Her Wicked Smile (Le Chat Noir) / Your Girlfriend Knows / Gold Mine / You Bring Me Down (Blood Red Shoes) / Straight Doll / King Kong Beat

Gig Diary: Noisy-Pop Vol. 2, Home Club, 30 January 2010

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:33:00 +0800

Salutations, fancy web dwellers!

I love reading sanctimonious exposé of life on the road. Some of my personal favorites are Ben Blackwell’s Tremble Under Boom Lights, Screaming Females’ official blog that’s updated mainly by their drummer Jarrett D and The View From The Bus!!, a blog by Steven who’s the touring lighting designer for The Killers. (PS: If you haven’t read Steven’s latest entry on the Killers’ Asian tour cancellation, you should.)

While there’s hardly any “life on the road” for us just yet, we still play the odd one-off shows, all seasons around the year. Naturally, because shows don’t really happen frequently or back-to-back, they become somewhat of an highlight of our band career. It also doubles up as a social outing because we also get to reconnect with old friends who would drop by, as well as make some new friends along the way. Just last Saturday, we played our first show of 2010 at Home Club and had a blast. Here’s what went down!

Being a drummer is tough luck because of all the gear you’ve got to carry. Neither of us drives. So it’s pure manual labor via public transport all the way. Sitting in the cab and speeding down the highway, I felt like AC/DC wrote “It’s A Long Way To The Top” just for me.

Shirley has it easy ‘cos all she carries is a guitar. Under that cutesy Emily bag was a Joan Jett Melody Maker. Rock beast camouflage, I’d say.

We got to the venue on for soundcheck at about 3:30pm. Things were running late. So we sat about and had a chat with Famie from The Pinholes who told us that they were invited to SXSW 2010 and wrote a song called “Youth Of Goal” for submission to the Youth Olympics. Good, exciting stuff!

The boys of Karl Maka and their guest vocalist Biddy, who also plays in Breakbeat Theory, were milling about too.

Went out for some “fresh air”. I didn’t know the bridge just outside the venue’s called Elgin Bridge. Shirley said she didn’t either and was all bummed at our lack of knowledge of bridges in Singapore.

After Karl Maka’s soundcheck, we did ours. It was short and fast, just like our songs. CK and Georgina took the time to decorate the stage with blinking lights that said “Noisy Pop.” Just like the TypeWriter song, it’s all about “Details.”

At 5.45pm, we took the stage and rocked the hell out for 30 minutes. Of course we didn’t turn electro, contrary to our last blog entry. We certainly did have some friends fooled though! Played four tunes (“Spit It Out,” “Wago Fever,” “Your Girlfriend Knows,” “Straight Doll”) from back in the day when we were a four-piece, two new songs (“Gold Mine” and “King Kong Beat”) and two covers - Le Chat Noir’s “Her Wicked Smile” and Blood Red Shoes’ “You Bring Me Down.” If my memory serves me right, we have played a BRS song at almost every gig except for Baybeats 2008. We ended the gig with the oriental riff just for CK.

Gig aftermath: Shirley didn’t break a sweat while I poured like a waterfall. After wiping down a little, we headed to the front for our homies.

I loved the new drum sound that Ken did for “With You, Always.” The newly reworked duet “Say It With Maka” with Biddy went for a bullseye at my heart. Biddy, being a chameleon, could work her style and vocals in all sorts of musical situations. The electro-pop Biddy reminded me of Victoria Bergsman. It was damn right lovely.

Eve and Alf, who played in the first formation of Midnight Marvel, came down as well. We attempted to take beer cheering to a new height.

After Shirley and Biddy’s tag-team super boogie-ing at Quasimodo’s set, we went off for dinner. I was famished. I could eat a cow even though I’m don’t eat red meat. I ate a huge bowl of udon instead.

As you can tell, I was pretty psyched about it. It came with Hokkaido seafood, which was good because then I didn’t have to wake up the next morning, thinking of how delish Davvy Jones looks to me.

At 10pm, we returned to the venue to catch TypeWriter. To my chagrin, they’ve started way earlier as Moods cancelled their set. I heard them even when I was in the loo and ran all the way back in. Only managed to catch their set from “Enemy” onwards. But I didn’t miss their new song, “The Deepest Blue,” which Shirley misheard as “The Dimples Blue.”

The Pinholes closed the gig with a regal bang. Famie is such a consummate frontman. I can’t imagine what it was like for those girls watching Elvis perform. I certainly did feel like a gleeful small girl with Famie working his old skool, retro charms on us.

And we split. Shirley continued her wayward, havoc ways till the morning while I was back home by midnight. Our spitfire singer spent her Sunday in her cosy bed while poor me was suffering from food poisoning after a piece of bad fish at lunch. Should have heed the culinary advice. You know what they say about seafood on Sundays and Mondays!

Till the next gig! We strongly encourage you to stalk us on Twitter. You know you want to.

\m/
Lennat

Whatever happened to my rock ‘n’ roll?

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:44:00 +0800

Whatever happened to my rock ‘n’ roll?

Announcing our first gig of 2010! We will be playing with some...

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:43:00 +0800

Announcing our first gig of 2010!

We will be playing with some of our favorite local bands such as the Karl Maka, TypeWriter and the Pinholes.

As the boys are all cool gents, it’s ladies first. Midnight Marvel will kick off the gig at 5pm sharp so be there early if you want to catch us. Details as follows:

Noisy-Pop! Vol. 2
Date : 30 January 2010 (Saturday)
Time : 5pm - 11pm
Place : Home Club
Entrance Fee : $15 (including 1 beer or house-pour)

CRANK IT UP! ALL THE WAY UP! Let the WALL OF SOUND surround you, and DIVE into ALL that’s noise and pop! WE ARE BACK and NOISIER than EVER! NOISY-POP! Vol.2 features a stellar line-up of 8 bands across genres. A whole night of manic, pure & juicy, noise-making goodness!

A-go-go to the foot-stomping, hip-twisting, heart-breaking beat! Be fueled by the shimmering, hypnotic sounds of TypeWriter, Midnight Marvel, The Karl Maka, Quasimodo, Cheating Sons, Shelves, Moods and The Pinholes! Who knows, by the end of the night you might just fall in love all over again with your old favourites, or grow a brand new crush?! Ah, the dizzy days of a blossoming relationship between fan and band.

How’s that for a grand way to kick start a brand new year of NOISY-POP?!!

More details at the official Facebook event page!

Greetings! A new year is upon us. To kick things off grandly, we...

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:35:00 +0800

Greetings!

A new year is upon us. To kick things off grandly, we managed to catch one of our biggest inspirations live on January 12, 2010 at the Esplanade Concert Hall. It was a fruitful and rewarding journey, as we also got to meet the band, as well as spend some time with our friend Brian the next day. “In Chase, We Trust” indeed!

We are still reeling, of course. If you really want us to summarize the whole experience, we can only say: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are untouchable!

YEAH x3!

“KING KONG BEAT” - HOME...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:07:00 +0800

“KING KONG BEAT” - HOME DEMO
[DOWNLOAD: MEDIAFIRE]

Second song that we’ve worked on as a duo. Recorded live with our handy Zoom H2. Still a work in progress. Like the economy, it can always be better.

Prince Of Wales, October 8, 2009 We played our first gig as a...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:06:00 +0800

Photo: Angela Chng

Photo: Angela Chng

Photo: Angela Chng

Prince Of Wales, October 8, 2009

We played our first gig as a fledgling guitar and drums duo at the John Peel tribute gig at Prince Of Wales. The show was plagued with Murphy’s Law and we played a super sloppy and short set of a couple of new songs (“Get Out” and “King Kong Beat”), old favorites (“Spit It Out!” and “Wago Fever”) and covers (The Upholsterers, Blood Red Shoes, The Coathangers).

Here’s a review we found on the Internet:

“Opening band Midnight Marvel could have sounded tighter, but that was really secondary to the snarling riot grrrl vibes it projected reminiscent of Sleater-Kinney.”

We like how the reviewer was “honest and unmerciful,” the way proper rock critics should be. Keen observation with the reference to one of our favorite bands too.

The first time we didn’t engage the help of the self-timer...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:42:00 +0800

The first time we didn’t engage the help of the self-timer for an official band promo photo. Taken by one of our good friends, Kaya Ow.

Sometime in April 2009, one of the Converse representatives from...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:32:00 +0800

Sometime in April 2009, one of the Converse representatives from Shanghai got in touch and lots of emails and a couple of phone calls later, we were on board for their Fall ‘09 Music + Lyrics campaign that centers around indie music and its community around the Asia-Pacific region.

Converse has been part of the whole rock ‘n’ roll heritage for a long time. We’re definitely most honored that the Shanghai folks believe in the band enough to choose us as the only band from Singapore for the campaign. You also would have never guessed that Shirley originally wrote the song about Lennat’s obsession with paintball. (Keynote: Lennat has since quit the sport.)

Other than the song and lyrics, we also contributed a series of local stories for their Dispatches column. We had a lot of fun in the sun chasing stories as a band, interviewing our peers, talking to them about their hopes and dreams, sharing the very same hopes and dreams - we learned a lot more about that “renegade indie spirit” that we were told to capture. In a way, Singapore definitely lacks the derelict urban decay of China, Korea and Thailand but we are all still here chasing teenage kicks, aren’t we?

You can download the lyrics from “Kill Pill” as your wallpaper here.

We have a long list of favorite bands. When this interview with...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:30:00 +0800

We have a long list of favorite bands. When this interview with inSing.com was done, our flavor of the day was The Ting Tings. A couple of months down the road, we caught the band live and weren’t that blown away. We attributed the lack of “fist punches” to the heat and probably the bad sound engineering that day.