Reviewing MONORAL

Quite a while ago, I posted a review of another song from MONORAL called ‘Sometimes’ from their latest album VIA, in my facebook’ note. I put it there so everyone on my facebook’ f-list can read it and get a single clue about MONORAL (hell yea, now I feel like I’m one of those never been created MONORAL Street Team in my country).
I chose ‘Sometimes’ because that song apparently pretty unique to my ears and the lyrics seems knock me out to the bones. Well, most of MONORAL’ songs knock me out actually, but ‘Sometimes’ was the winner that day, so I wrote it, and I felt pretty in mood for that song that day really.

So I tagged my friend, who gladly knows this band and adores every beat and word of MONORAL’ songs, in that note and couple of minutes after, she called me and said, “DAMN you! This one just shot me to the bones! But I totally agree with you.”
And then she hung up the phone, but soon after, left a comment on the note: “please, do review Session 9 and Monkey Cage! Please do it! Please! Please! I’m begging you!”
I was like, “WHAT?! Are you serious?! Reviewing those two… well, Session 9 only actually… can take 3 days and nights for me to settle my heart at ease before start writing it. I can assure you that!”
But she just won’t take “no” for the answer, so I just let her know that I’ll be working on it later.

Well, what do you know?
I’m working on it actually, and yes, this (the review for Session 9) shreds my hearts into zillion pieces. So I’m multitasking right now: listening to Session 9, reviewing it, and trying so hard collecting and gluing my shredded heart into one piece again.

What can I say about this song?
I’m not going to tell you now, because that will be in my next post (or posts in plural??), but to be honest, this song is really suffocating. I think Ali and Anis really got me on this… or maybe lots of me-a-like out there.

But one thing for sure I enjoy reviewing each and every song of MONORAL, because somehow those two beautiful MONORAL people are bleeding their hearts out in creating every single song they have and it is just showed.
I mean, I can feel it. I can actually entwine the whole chemistry in the album.
This is suffocating actually. And yes it’s hard, and sometimes I could be really tired after listening to the whole album in a trance mode to do this (entwining), but… I like it. I like doing it actually. And I got really addicted to it. And MONORAL…. This is why I love MONORAL, because I can splurge this insanity I have to the fullest.

So I guess there will be lots of MONORAL reviews in any blogs I have, and my facebook’s note also. Be prepare for it and hell, I know lots of my friends would go.. “nutty nutty Niken is back with her insanity world, and that means hell.”
And I’ll be talking back at them, “hell to you too, pals. Cheers!”

I’m signing off now and will be having a great weekend by reviewing MONORAL (all weekend?? Yes *nodding*)


Save water. Drink beer.
Cheers again!


related posts about MONORAL:

MONORAL: who?!
Session 9: when romantic doesn't have to be poetic
Listening MONORAL: enjoy riding rollercoaster of emotions
Videos of MONORAL on YouTube
Side note: Being confused in Japanengrish


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Making love with my ears: MONORAL – Session 9

MONORAL : “who?!”

First time ever met this band… well, not met but… found out about this band was actually about a year ago. What?!?! Hell yea, I know how late I am for this band.
Well anyway, I was brought to this band by Hyde (The Laruku’s vocalist FYI, just in case you lost him). He mentioned this band and had kissing scenes (YES kissing, I typed it right and they did) with the vocalist many times and I was like… “Who the hell Anis (the vocalist) and this MONORAL are?!”

So I wikied them and read the info about this band.
Soon, I was like “hmm… okay, a model turns to vocalist and an MTV VJ turns to bassist, so typically instant rock band? Silly.”
Well that was what the evil side of Brian told me as I took just a glimpse at it, not fully reading the whole story. And I kept with that shallow info for quite sometimes.

Then one day, I got bored. Surfing here and there and again found out the news about how Hyde adores the vocalist of MONORAL. Kind of curious in disgust, I typed “MONORAL” in the searching box of YouTube that led me to a PV of “Visions in My Head”.
The thought, “oo well, at least if it turns out to be a jest, then it will be brighten up my grayish day a little bit with its silliness,” was there in ‘the Attic’ while the buffering was working to the max.
Few minutes later and it was a fully loaded, I tapped the play button and something hit me right away exactly in the head.
I was completely stunned, “WHAT?! This is MONORAL?!?! NO… WAY!”
The last thing I knew, I spent the rest of the day skipping work and surfing nothing but MONORAL. And that even made my day way much brighter.

This is rather an eclectic modern rock band instead of Japanese Rock Band I must say and probably this band would not steal my attention if it’s not because they inherit Japanese in their blood, thou not fully Japanese but kind of mix of there and here. And yes, this band has absolutely a different sound from any other Japanese Rock Band.
The sounds of semi-Seattle mix up with a bunch of Britpop and lots of uniquely exotic noises and total English lyrics with exactly an English pronunciation rather than what any Japanese-English-will do may false belief you that this band originally from any where but Japan.
Other than the sounds, this band is fortunate enough to have a vocalist with the kind of “Eddie Vedder of Pearl jam’ singing style and raw voice” with a nice middle-east layer in his voice. This kind of what makes the band even more unique [and yes I rate only from the vocalist, because I’ve no idea how exactly is the best bass-playing will sound like, sorry!!]

So then I started to collect the singles then the albums, then I’m officially nailing myself onto them.
I started to learn these two amazing musicians (now I call them ‘musicians’ rather than ‘instant rock stars’) and carefully demolishing the false belief I had about this band that was in the Attic for quite some times.

What can I inform you about MONORAL? Well, I guess you can find it anywhere in this cyber-world. Just Google it and you’ll find lots of sites talking about them in any languages or you can just do the shortcut and wiki them, thou I’m not quite sure how accurate the info in wikipedia, but it’s worth.

For a summary, this band only consists of two musicians (a vocalist and a bassist) who started it all with each other’s band, even one of them had released a solo album when he’s 19 or so, he (the solo artist) too was (or still?) a model in Japan, then both ended-up as MTV VJs and that was how they met, and soon after, MONORAL was born. Thank God they decided to form a band together.
Did I miss something? Hell, I told you to Google them for a much concrete info right?

Anyway, as I told you before, I’m officially nailing myself onto this band. Indeed. I guess I’ve been addicted to this band and I keep putting their albums in my player and they’re been there for a long period, and I haven’t got bored of them…yet. Even my fangirling mode keeps flashing brightly every time I hit the news or rumors or even just pictures of them. Silly me… I know.

I guess I have to thank my boredom and my skipping work that led me to this band. Well if it wasn’t because of it, I probably wouldn’t dare to cross the line and surf-in MONORALish and this stupid belief about ‘how silly MONORAL is’ would stay for a lot longer period of time and I wouldn’t get any chance to know those two adorable musicians (now I know why Hyde adores this band).

Hmm… that means, never judge a book by its cover?
Or simply say, “Listen carefully first then you may speak your mind out loud.”
That works for me, any time. And I should stick with it and keep learning the line so that I won’t be crashed and tangled in a stupid prejudice behavior.

So, dare to MONORALish yourself?
I bet you’ll fall in love with this one. And even if you don’t like Japanese Songs (because you’ve no idea what they’re talking about or hate the way they sing the songs) you have nothing to worry about because MONORAL will make you think they’re not coming from any place in Japan.
Moreover if you like the sounds of modern rock or Britpop, then MONORAL will save your day.
Give them a try. Give yourself a chance to get to know more about these two amazing musicians. At least your collections will be much more diverse than your usual right?

I’m signing off now with couple of pictures about MONORAL, enjoy.
Cheers!

credits to the photos:
sorry but i kinda forgot where i stole those pics from, but the last one (the yellowish pic) i stole from their website. the rest? from here and there, and if you the original owner would like me to erase them from my blog, then happily contact me and i'll erase them all.
cheers again.


related posts about MONORAL :

reviewing MONORAL
Session 9: when romantic doesn't have to be poetic
Listening MONORAL: enjoy riding rollercoaster of emotions
videos of MONORAL on YouTube
Side note: Being confused in Japanengrish



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Bestfriending with the ears: MONORAL – So Long!

VAMPS new singles

Hell yea...
A bit late to post them here. Actually not wanted to but I did it anyway.

So I copied the embeds and put them here, hopefully the greatest YouTube won’t ban them for the sake of copyright and so on, coz I’ve no idea when the two will finally release an album. And if they do, I’m sure it won’t be released in Indonesia and I have to get it shipped to me and it’s gonna be waaaaayyyyy expensive. So.... while I’m on the mission of saving my every pennies for the sake of this album PLUS a trip to Japan next 2011, let’s enjoy the newest singles from VAMPS the side project of Hyde and KAZ.

One of the single is a cover version of Trouble. A hit single back in 9ty something. I remember I was in my junior back then and this song was quite annoying but hell... it’s pretty interesting thou.
And was kinda wondering when I first heard this news about VAMPS covering Trouble, what the heck it will gonna be like and boom... here it is. A quite while waiting is paid off and yes... I am still on my *(O.o)* mode. I think this song will be MUCH better live... or at least because we can see how exactly Hyde will do throughout the song.

*sigh* no further delay.... ENJOY!!!

1. I Gotta Kick Start Now




2. Trouble




Oooh.... (O.o)
And just a little slip here, i found this one too.
These two guys have just killed me with this one.

MONORAL feat. Hyde singing Safira
(taken from VAMPS live DVD)




*hhh!!!!*
I’m in tears of cheers....
but still in tears.... bloody tears...... but still cheers
damn them!!!

(note: look at the height difference between hyde and anis... it’s pretty hilarious and.... they kissed. Yes. They did... they actually have done that many times. But i never mind of it. Please keep kissing out guys! *BIG big grin*)

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and now I can settle my heart at ease for the rest of the day, no matter how frantic it is.... *relieved*

VAMPROSE OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL

YAY!!
Finally! They’re (officially) on YouTube!
That means, (hopefully) we can get all access to the latest videos from vamprose’ artists such as VAMPS and MONORAL (well, those are the only artists under vamprose recently anyway^^)
May they update it regularly ^^

Anyway, here’s the link!
http://www.youtube.com/VamproseChannel

to all the VAMPS and MONORAL fans...
Subscribe now and you won’t miss any thing


cheers!!

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And 18 of March (this holy year) our dear Hyde-sama will release his best album... plus DVD *sigh*
does he has any heart to stop torturing our wallet? (oo well, mine at least) Man... i havent even purchased laruku’s DVDs, vamps’ DVDs, and now... he’s going to release his CD+DVD *fall flat on the floor*

ooh, check this one out too... it’s a temporary site so check it NOW... http://www.hydebest.com

fangirling mode: SUPER ON

Yaak!!
Berhubung lagi males posting walau buku journal udah penuh namun belom ada waktu buat ngadepin PC di rumah buat mindahin apapun yang gw tulis di buku itu, maka hari ini gw mengisi blog ini dengan......

*big grin mode: ON*
Baru nyuri ini foto dari photobucket orang. Jangan salahkan gw untuk mencuri karena dia menaruhnya untuk konsumsi publik, ya kaaannn???

Eniwei, enjoy it (or not?) aakkh, at least for me, i’m kinda enjoying it.

Dan buat yang gak tau... yang ada dalem poto itu adalah Anis Shimada (vokalis band MONORAL) lagi ngejogrok di pinggir jalan. Ckckck... klo sampe dia ngejogrok kayak gitu di pinggir jalan Sudirman depan gedung kantor gw, tanpa mikir dua kali, gw temenin daaah^^

Piissuuu^^V

To someone i stole the pic from, PEACE gal^^V

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bestfriending with the ears: MONORAL - Safira (streaming on YouTube)