Friday 24th September
Lemang Music
presents
THE NEXT STAGE vol III
featuring
TELEBURY
GROOVETANK
CALL THE PARAMEDICS
ZALILA LEE
SOFT TOUCH
&
from Singapore
ZHEN
Paul's Place
105M, First floor, Jalan SS21/1A, Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
telephone: 0162768962
e-mail: paulmil@tm.net.my
Getting there:
Intrakota 21A (chowkit), 21C/21D (kotaraya)
Metrobus 99 (Bangkok Bank),
LRT Putra & Triton
feeder buses from the Kelana Jaya station
8.00 pm
admission RM5
Beer and soft drinks available
COSMIC FUNK EXPRESS was just recently formed on June 2004. Alda from (Dragon Red) and Elliot from (Shelly Leongs Band) met up with Zack from (Groove Tank) to form a funk/fusion band.Cosmic did a couple of performances around and bring up the heat of various sounds. Such as Carlsberg jazz fest, Opening act for Shelley Leong's album launch, T.H.E Carnival fest in DUMC ,and a few funky gigs. At this moment Cosmic is on the way to produce an album to Express their way of Funk. Here comes the Cosmic Funk Express.....
GROOVETANK, formed spontaneously in mid-2003, has gone from being a hyper-tension, freewheeling funk-rock quintet to a more concentrated quartet with steadier tones and real songs to sing instead of mere spazzed-out jams. Early peformances by this refined line-up drew similarities to the Dave Matthews and John Mayer school of folk-funk: warm acoustic tones whisper amidst Groovetank's funky attack. The band -- led by affable and able lyricist Yujin on guitars and vocals, and completed by shred-minded lead guitarist Zack, bass virtuoso Ken Chung and drummer/percussionist Jon -- have now found their feet to share this precious early batch of odes, songs and jams, as a starting point for much more to come.
ZHEN, Zeph (vocals), Flo (drums), Wendy (bass), Riez (guitar). Zhen is a 4-piece band with both originals and covers to play . It was formed by Bassist Wendy Phua to explore music that is not bounded by specific time-worn genres. After performing in various bands and sessioning over the years, she decided to break new grounds and write music that is an eclectic fusion of Progressive Rock, Funk, Renaissance Classical and Jazz. The band's drive stems from an intrinsic need to express challenging and topical thoughts and ideas through music.
Thus ZHEN's logo is a Mandarin character that symbolises INGENUITY and enforces its Asian ethnicity. The yellow and black colour tones represent the idea of yin and yang; complete harmony in the astute balance of chaos and tension. This strong imagery is a reflection of the intense ferocity in ZHEN's song-writing and performance processes. With eclectic influences culled from the likes of Spyro Gyra, Rush, Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones, Liquid Tension Experiment, John Petrucci, Vito Bratta, and Crytopsy, ZHEN music is definitely not for the faint-hearted and they often fuse various styles within a song. Our originals are a mix of progressive rock, funk, classical renaissance and jazz. Covers are from the likes of Audioslave, RHCP, Craig David, Goo Goo Dolls, Hoobastank, YYZ etc. Always prepared to push the envelope in being creative, ZHEN endeavours to create music that challenges the mind and most importantly, speaks to the heart. This is our first visit to Kuala Lumpur to perform in two gigs. Please go to www.zhen.cjb.net for more details about us and you can also hear 3 demo tracks from there.
SOFT TOUCH was founded in 1999 and played their first gig in Colours pub in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya. The original band which until then had consisted of I'joo on lead guitar, Mokhtarizal on drums, Shahril on bass, Markiza on keyboards and vocals and Peter Hassan Brown on vocals, guitar and harmonica, broke up after performing at the Qings & Kueens Web Launch at Jam Asia Bistro in October 20th 2003. This was because both I'joo and Mokhtar left owing to other committments. It was not until March 2004 that replacements were found for these valuable guys. The present line-up is: Wong Lip Kee, lead guitar; Alex Ang, drums; Shahril, six-string bass; and Markiza and Peter. Wong the lead guitarist is also guitarist, composer and singer with Samarkand, whose first album was released in 2001, while singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex plays guitar for Tribus and drums for Pike, both East Malaysian bands, as he is from Kuching in Sarawak. He has recently been recruited as drummer for Singletrackmind. A former drummer for Jason Lo's band Lo, he is currently staying in Petaling Jaya. Bass player Shahril was discovered last year jamming at Paul's Place with his funky six-string. He has already written two songs for the band and others are on their way. Markiza and Peter Hassan have been doing their own music for years, as well as the commercial scene for a short time during the nineties. They have self-produced two albums as the duo Passion and Peter recently released his fourth solo album, "Warm"( www.lemang.com )
Soft Touch performs some new songs composed for the band and one or two songs from "Warm" and from the Passion albums "Open Secret" and "Love & Music" The style of music is indie rock with a melodic and sometimes jazzy feel, with a bit of grunge thrown in too. The rhythm section is heavy and punchy with the songs light and breezy and sometimes even a bit folky. As for covers, bands like Fleetwood Mac, REM, Wild Cherry, Beatles, and Cake are represented.
Lemang Music
telephone: 0193688130, 03 20953045
http://www.lemang.com
(downloads, photos, info and bios, song lyrics, past and future gigs)
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